I agree. People are always laughing about some new thing and how no one really cares about it, and then suddenly people use it and go "OMG, wow, how did I deal without it?" I was resistant to TiVo for a few years. Seemed to be a neat concept but hardly would play a big part in my TV viewing. After all, I was always at home when my shows were on, so no big deal, right? My VCR can record my favorite shows if I have plans, right? Well TiVo kicks a VCR's ass every which way. If I get home late cause of traffic or I needed to spend 30 more minutes finishing something up, TiVo will record and I can start it at the beginning. Unlike a VCR where I would have to wait for it to finish recording or just start watching in the middle. Plus commercial skip. So useful. I've not used my VCR since my TiVo and I seldom watch live shows. I just let it record everything and I watch it when I have time. Like right now while browsing slashdot.
I doubt many people really thought the car would take off so well. "We all have a horse an buggy, why would I need a car???" (This is conjecture, but I'm sure it happened.)
Cordless phones. "But you have to recharge them, and there is static when you use them. My wired phone is perfect." I bet it's very hard to find a home without a cordless phone nowadays (though it can happen).
I have a friend who refuses to get a cell phone. "I don't want someone able to contact me 24/7." Well, you can turn it OFF or not answer it. But when he doesn't show up somewhere we're supposed to go hang out at, and his excuse is "I couldn't find it", I tell him flat out he could have called my cell phone to get directions. And if he had a cell phone, he wouldn't have to find a pay phone.
I guess maybe I'm rambling, but the point is that there are things that come around all the time where people wonder why anyone would ever "need" it, but I tell you, I will not get rid of my TiVo, my cell phone, my car, or my laptop. I can use a VCR, I can use a pay phone, I can take a bus, I can get on a desktop in my bedroom instead of using a laptop on the couch, but it's very very hard. Maybe WinFS isn't quite the same as a car, but I think when it comes to computers, something that fundamentally changes the way users organize and find data will be something people won't be able to live without.
This is something that has always bothered me about election coverage. This example just proves the point, and it's not about whether Bush or Gore won. That is a totally different argument.
IMO, until after ALL (yes, ALL) polls are closed (including Hawaii), the media should NOT be allowed to "call" any state. Nor report on what projections are, nor anything. It taints the election process, even if just a little. There comes a point when the media needs to take responsibility and respect the voting process.
I think that the Slashdot editors should take it upon themselves to modify all links in the submitted article to be Coral'd. Now that a method exists by which to help eliminate (or greatly reduce) the/. effect, Slashdot owes it to the websites to which it links to prevent whatever/. effect it can.
They only have the kernel modifications available for download...in other words just the stuff that they're required to offer. A copy of the GPL can be found in the back of the instruction manual.
Exactly what I figured. They give away as much as the GPL requires them to.
To use ethernet with a Series 2 Tivo, plug a USB ethernet adapter into the USB port. Series 2 is broadband-ready.
That wasn't my question. I asked if there was a way to use the USB port (in some way) to get a shell prompt. I know the Series 2 is ethernet ready -- I use it with a wireless USB adapter already. Since I asked the question, I've found that it's supposed to be possible to get a shell on a Series 2. "Hacking the TiVo" by William von Holsen (or something like that) explains it. So I bought the book.
There is no easy way to pull an MPEG from a Series 2. AFAIK, the "community" is generally aware it can be done, but there is little in the way of info being published out of respect to TiVo as to not spoil a good thing.
Again, not surprising. It's really too bad - adding a new hard drive is about all I've found. I'd rather be able to move the MPEGs off to another machine so that I can keep them archived for later use. I'd also really like to add some updates to the rules engine (for example, I have a "Science" wishlist, but I get stupid shows like "Blake Holesey High" and "Dr Hugh Ross" that I hate. But they record whether I have 3 thumbs down on them or not. A rule that says "I don't care what the wishlist is, if it had 3 thumbs down, don't record it!" is all that I'm really looking for.
First, you never really owned any software anyway. When you "buy" the software, you really purchase a LICENSE to use it.
That said, there are lots of details that would need to be worked out to get this working properly. For example, I would not expect that EVERY time you use it, you must access a server (this is assuming the software is actually client-side and not a web service running on a server somewhere). Would be quite hard to use Word (for example) on an airplane with no internet access. So I would expect there would be a one-time activation for a period of time (1 month, 6 months, whatever). Anytime you have internet access, it checks for updates and installs them if necessary. Otherwise, until the end of the term is nearing, it never prompts you again. If you choose to extend your license, it indicates to the server and your account/credit card/etc... is charged for the extension. I'm sure an over-the-phone activation scheme can be used for times when no internet access is available.
Other issues are things like prices... What happens if the company decides that $50 for xxx months is not enough, and they need to increase to $65? There needs to be assurances that the rental fee will not increase and can only go down with time, or some such. Nowadays, when you purchase software, you can use it regardless of how many updates there are -- or even if it's no longer supported. Try THAT with software "rentals". So the consumer needs to be protected from pricing schemes like that.
There will also be issues with software running on multiple machines -- how many machines do the rental licenses allow to run concurrently? While I realize that today, this is largely an honor-system (even Windows XP allows you to install it 3 times on different machines until it locks you out and requires a phone call), but if they try to enforce that, it will require internet access to verify you can run the software. And what happens if a machine is running it, but crashes (ya know, the BSOD or lock-up type, or even the network access goes down), and it cannot update the server to indicate it's no longer running. You try to run on another machine that does have network access and it thinks it can't. I'm sure there would be a timeout period where if the server hasn't been refreshed for a period of time, it thinks it's ok to run the other app.
I'm sure there are many more issues. It's not an easy problem.
TiVo's OS is Linux based, you can download the source code: http://tivo.com/linux/linux.asp
Thanks for the link to the source. Does this contain only the enhancements they made to the kernel, or does it contain the TiVo application as well? For example, the rules engine for schedules and conflict resolution? I know they have to release their kernel enhancements, but unless their application is put into the kernel itself, they may not release the source for it.
I'm not sure about all TiVo's but mine has a USB port in the back (and most of the new ones do) but there are several books and online guides (one book that i know of "Hacking the TiVo")
I have the Toshiba SDH-400. It has the USB ports (I use one of them for wireless). I know the original Series 1, you could use the serial port and get a shell prompt. Is there a similar way to do this with the USB connection? I'm quite interested in modifying my TiVo, but I've never found any information regarding the Series 2, specifically the Toshiba SDH-400.
But you can pull the MPEG2's right off the TiVo and on to your hard drive, and then it's onto the DVD burner from there.
This is definitely one thing I want. Any links you can provide would be useful.
You're missing the point. This is for TiVo _and_ NetFlix customers. If you use NetFlix, you're already willing to wait a couple days for the DVD to be delivered. Just going down to the local rental store is not a substitute for NetFlix, for multiple reasons. One of them is cost. NetFlix is a fixed cost per month, whereas generally DVD rentals cost a certain amount per movie. True, Blockbuster (and maybe some others) allow for fixed cost for as many DVDs as you want (max 3 at a time, or something similar to NetFlix), but selection is key. With NetFlix, you say "I want these 10 DVDs" and they give them to you when they're available. You don't have to wait until they come back and make a special trip.
So if you're not willing to wait 2 hours for a download, then you're likely not a NetFlix subscriber either. And thus not their target market. At least until it takes 5 minutes to download. Which will be a while.
You missed nothing. That "non-registration required" link was almost word-for-word what the summary was. Amazing when an entire article can be said in one summary on slashdot.
IMO, this is exactly the problem with our patent system. It's not that companies patent what we consider "obvious" ideas. It's that when they finally get granted, EVERYONE and their brother is using it. If patents were resolved within 6 months, or some other reasonable time frame, there would be less time for other companies to infringe on those patents. Having 7 years of patent protection when it was never really issued is a big issue. It means if a (valid) patent were submitted and then not granted for 7 years, and 3 years down the road, a company starts using your idea, you have 4 years worth to sue them and get back-money. When there WAS no patent when they were doing it! I think that's lame.
It also seems there was a slip-up when awarding the patent, as I'm sure Lynx used this concept since it was started in 1995.
No, the patent was given on August 31, 2004. It was filed on March 6, 1997. However, it seems that since Lynx has been around since 1995, there is prior art. I don't use Lynx, but I would assume it uses the "tab" key for navigation and has since 1995.
I always thought a "daughter" board was a board that plugs into the motherboard, but other boards plug into the daughter board. As such, it was kind of an "extension" of the motherboard. I think Compaq used to use this sort of setup.
A monopoly, as defined in the United States, is having greater than 25% market share in any particular market.
Then I fail to see how a UK-defined "working monopoly" applies to the US. In the US, price fixing is illegal, but price fixing does not require a monopoly; indeed it is a cartel that can do price fixing. Which is also illegal, but it is not a monopoly.
25%? So if there are two companies, one with 30% market share and the other with 70% market share, then BOTH of them have monopolies? I don't think so. Your argument might make sense if you said "25% share or more GREATER than the second-highest market share." This would mean at least a 37% to 63% market share for only two companies, but even that might be stretching it. Especially since you could conceivably have second and third place both at 25% and thus the first place at 50%. Please give us your definition of "monopoly as defined in the United States" with a link to US Code that defines it as such.
However, you are correct that having a monopoly is NOT illegal, but using it as leverage is.
Netscape was free for non-corporate use long before 1998. Furthermore, your defintion of "predatory pricing" has two parts:
the first part involves selling a product below what competitors are able to charge for their products, with the intention of eliminating the competition , the second part is the intention to raise prices after the competitors are gone.
Microsoft never raised any price of IE. It's always been free. And once it was included, Microsoft went even farther by embedding IE in the operating system. By your defintion, they did not predatorily price IE.
In May of 2003, MS and AOL/Time Warner settled a lawsuit regarding MS's anticompetitive behavior with MSIE.
As I said earlier, BUNDLING was the anticompetitive behavior, NOT predatory pricing.
Sorry, that doesn't fly. Netscape was giving away it's Netscape browser at the time. In other words, the main competitor was free. Furthermore, product tying is NOT predatory pricing. It may be another form of antitrust, but is a different violation, if one at all.
Now, run as a non-Administrator and try those commands. I'm pretty sure it won't work. Debug is just an application running. If you want to attach debug to another application you are running, then you can, regardless of whether or not you're an Administrator. But to actually do raw stuff to the hardware, you'd have to be an Administrator, and even then I don't know if XP will let you.
What application has Microsoft predatorily priced? Office has never (from my recollection) been priced super-low, Visual Studio hasn't. I can't think of one application from Microsoft that I would consider to be priced so low competitors as to drive competitors out of business.
Last I heard, in India, it was 53 rupees to one US dollar. A couple rupees give you a really good meal. Seems quite fair to cut the price to an area of the world where the average income is quite lower than what the US's "poor" people have.
TCO != Purchase price. Microsoft will argue that even though the purchase price of XP is higher than the purchase price of (for example) Red Hat, the TCO for maintenance, support, blah is higher for the other system than for XP. The argument is that in the long run, XP is cheaper for the consumer.
Whether you believe that or not is one thing, and whether the courts believe it or not is another thing, but the argument still makes sense. Short term savings = Linux, long term savings = Microsoft.
the first part involves selling a product below what competitors are able to charge for their products, with the intention of eliminating the competition , the second part is the intention to raise prices after the competitors are gone.
So then by your definition, Microsoft cannot be found guilty for predatory pricing either. At what point in time did Microsoft price it's OS so below the competitors as to drive them out of business? I remember $99 Windows 95. I also remember Slackware for free at the same time. Nowhere is $99 $0. I'm not sure what the price of the Mac OS was at that point in time was, but I doubt it was much different.
More data to analyze? Please explain how this helps them? All that's happening is emails are being sent with some weird subject line (the "fsname") and files are attached to that. I'm sure the body of the message somehow has the "path" of the file and other information (such as number of chunks, etc...).
Gmail itself analyses email content to see what kinds of emails you receive and then decides what ads to show you, etc...
Please tell us how analyzing this extra data actually helps Gmail do what they want. If anything, it gives them more data with NOTHING useful.
If the system administrators are smart, they'll password protect the BIOS settings and only allow the hard drive to boot. Not floppy. Not CD. Not USB.
Thus, if the BIOS is set to NOT allow the floppy boot, they cannot boot to MSDOS to do whatever you want DEBUG to do. (What do those commands do?) Now, if you're saying all you need is to log into the machine as a user (not Administrator) and run DEBUG to do that, then that seems to be a serious problem with XP. Can you clarify what you meant?
If the system administrators are smart, they'll password protect the BIOS settings and only allow the hard drive to boot. Not floppy. Not CD. Not USB. Yes, you can reset the BIOS password, but it requires more than hitting the power button and plugging something in.
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I agree. People are always laughing about some new thing and how no one really cares about it, and then suddenly people use it and go "OMG, wow, how did I deal without it?" I was resistant to TiVo for a few years. Seemed to be a neat concept but hardly would play a big part in my TV viewing. After all, I was always at home when my shows were on, so no big deal, right? My VCR can record my favorite shows if I have plans, right? Well TiVo kicks a VCR's ass every which way. If I get home late cause of traffic or I needed to spend 30 more minutes finishing something up, TiVo will record and I can start it at the beginning. Unlike a VCR where I would have to wait for it to finish recording or just start watching in the middle. Plus commercial skip. So useful. I've not used my VCR since my TiVo and I seldom watch live shows. I just let it record everything and I watch it when I have time. Like right now while browsing slashdot.
I doubt many people really thought the car would take off so well. "We all have a horse an buggy, why would I need a car???" (This is conjecture, but I'm sure it happened.)
Cordless phones. "But you have to recharge them, and there is static when you use them. My wired phone is perfect." I bet it's very hard to find a home without a cordless phone nowadays (though it can happen).
I have a friend who refuses to get a cell phone. "I don't want someone able to contact me 24/7." Well, you can turn it OFF or not answer it. But when he doesn't show up somewhere we're supposed to go hang out at, and his excuse is "I couldn't find it", I tell him flat out he could have called my cell phone to get directions. And if he had a cell phone, he wouldn't have to find a pay phone.
I guess maybe I'm rambling, but the point is that there are things that come around all the time where people wonder why anyone would ever "need" it, but I tell you, I will not get rid of my TiVo, my cell phone, my car, or my laptop. I can use a VCR, I can use a pay phone, I can take a bus, I can get on a desktop in my bedroom instead of using a laptop on the couch, but it's very very hard. Maybe WinFS isn't quite the same as a car, but I think when it comes to computers, something that fundamentally changes the way users organize and find data will be something people won't be able to live without.
This is something that has always bothered me about election coverage. This example just proves the point, and it's not about whether Bush or Gore won. That is a totally different argument.
IMO, until after ALL (yes, ALL) polls are closed (including Hawaii), the media should NOT be allowed to "call" any state. Nor report on what projections are, nor anything. It taints the election process, even if just a little. There comes a point when the media needs to take responsibility and respect the voting process.
I think that the Slashdot editors should take it upon themselves to modify all links in the submitted article to be Coral'd. Now that a method exists by which to help eliminate (or greatly reduce) the /. effect, Slashdot owes it to the websites to which it links to prevent whatever /. effect it can.
First, you never really owned any software anyway. When you "buy" the software, you really purchase a LICENSE to use it.
That said, there are lots of details that would need to be worked out to get this working properly. For example, I would not expect that EVERY time you use it, you must access a server (this is assuming the software is actually client-side and not a web service running on a server somewhere). Would be quite hard to use Word (for example) on an airplane with no internet access. So I would expect there would be a one-time activation for a period of time (1 month, 6 months, whatever). Anytime you have internet access, it checks for updates and installs them if necessary. Otherwise, until the end of the term is nearing, it never prompts you again. If you choose to extend your license, it indicates to the server and your account/credit card/etc... is charged for the extension. I'm sure an over-the-phone activation scheme can be used for times when no internet access is available.
Other issues are things like prices... What happens if the company decides that $50 for xxx months is not enough, and they need to increase to $65? There needs to be assurances that the rental fee will not increase and can only go down with time, or some such. Nowadays, when you purchase software, you can use it regardless of how many updates there are -- or even if it's no longer supported. Try THAT with software "rentals". So the consumer needs to be protected from pricing schemes like that.
There will also be issues with software running on multiple machines -- how many machines do the rental licenses allow to run concurrently? While I realize that today, this is largely an honor-system (even Windows XP allows you to install it 3 times on different machines until it locks you out and requires a phone call), but if they try to enforce that, it will require internet access to verify you can run the software. And what happens if a machine is running it, but crashes (ya know, the BSOD or lock-up type, or even the network access goes down), and it cannot update the server to indicate it's no longer running. You try to run on another machine that does have network access and it thinks it can't. I'm sure there would be a timeout period where if the server hasn't been refreshed for a period of time, it thinks it's ok to run the other app.
I'm sure there are many more issues. It's not an easy problem.
This is definitely one thing I want. Any links you can provide would be useful.
You're missing the point. This is for TiVo _and_ NetFlix customers. If you use NetFlix, you're already willing to wait a couple days for the DVD to be delivered. Just going down to the local rental store is not a substitute for NetFlix, for multiple reasons. One of them is cost. NetFlix is a fixed cost per month, whereas generally DVD rentals cost a certain amount per movie. True, Blockbuster (and maybe some others) allow for fixed cost for as many DVDs as you want (max 3 at a time, or something similar to NetFlix), but selection is key. With NetFlix, you say "I want these 10 DVDs" and they give them to you when they're available. You don't have to wait until they come back and make a special trip.
So if you're not willing to wait 2 hours for a download, then you're likely not a NetFlix subscriber either. And thus not their target market. At least until it takes 5 minutes to download. Which will be a while.
You missed nothing. That "non-registration required" link was almost word-for-word what the summary was. Amazing when an entire article can be said in one summary on slashdot.
IMO, this is exactly the problem with our patent system. It's not that companies patent what we consider "obvious" ideas. It's that when they finally get granted, EVERYONE and their brother is using it. If patents were resolved within 6 months, or some other reasonable time frame, there would be less time for other companies to infringe on those patents. Having 7 years of patent protection when it was never really issued is a big issue. It means if a (valid) patent were submitted and then not granted for 7 years, and 3 years down the road, a company starts using your idea, you have 4 years worth to sue them and get back-money. When there WAS no patent when they were doing it! I think that's lame.
It also seems there was a slip-up when awarding the patent, as I'm sure Lynx used this concept since it was started in 1995.
No, the patent was given on August 31, 2004. It was filed on March 6, 1997. However, it seems that since Lynx has been around since 1995, there is prior art. I don't use Lynx, but I would assume it uses the "tab" key for navigation and has since 1995.
I always thought a "daughter" board was a board that plugs into the motherboard, but other boards plug into the daughter board. As such, it was kind of an "extension" of the motherboard. I think Compaq used to use this sort of setup.
Considering that you said (emphasis mine):
A monopoly, as defined in the United States, is having greater than 25% market share in any particular market.
Then I fail to see how a UK-defined "working monopoly" applies to the US. In the US, price fixing is illegal, but price fixing does not require a monopoly; indeed it is a cartel that can do price fixing. Which is also illegal, but it is not a monopoly.
25%? So if there are two companies, one with 30% market share and the other with 70% market share, then BOTH of them have monopolies? I don't think so. Your argument might make sense if you said "25% share or more GREATER than the second-highest market share." This would mean at least a 37% to 63% market share for only two companies, but even that might be stretching it. Especially since you could conceivably have second and third place both at 25% and thus the first place at 50%. Please give us your definition of "monopoly as defined in the United States" with a link to US Code that defines it as such.
However, you are correct that having a monopoly is NOT illegal, but using it as leverage is.
Loitering is also a crime in most localities. Not that I'm defending the officer's actions. He just has other ways to cause issues.
Netscape was free for non-corporate use long before 1998. Furthermore, your defintion of "predatory pricing" has two parts:
the first part involves selling a product below what competitors are able to charge for their products, with the intention of eliminating the competition , the second part is the intention to raise prices after the competitors are gone.
Microsoft never raised any price of IE. It's always been free. And once it was included, Microsoft went even farther by embedding IE in the operating system. By your defintion, they did not predatorily price IE.
In May of 2003, MS and AOL/Time Warner settled a lawsuit regarding MS's anticompetitive behavior with MSIE.
As I said earlier, BUNDLING was the anticompetitive behavior, NOT predatory pricing.
Sorry, that doesn't fly. Netscape was giving away it's Netscape browser at the time. In other words, the main competitor was free. Furthermore, product tying is NOT predatory pricing. It may be another form of antitrust, but is a different violation, if one at all.
Yes, and Windows XP has debug as well.
Now, run as a non-Administrator and try those commands. I'm pretty sure it won't work. Debug is just an application running. If you want to attach debug to another application you are running, then you can, regardless of whether or not you're an Administrator. But to actually do raw stuff to the hardware, you'd have to be an Administrator, and even then I don't know if XP will let you.
What application has Microsoft predatorily priced? Office has never (from my recollection) been priced super-low, Visual Studio hasn't. I can't think of one application from Microsoft that I would consider to be priced so low competitors as to drive competitors out of business.
So then I DON'T have to water/mow the lawn there! That's the city's job. I KNEW IT. Burn in hell, neighbors who don't like my tall grass.
Last I heard, in India, it was 53 rupees to one US dollar. A couple rupees give you a really good meal. Seems quite fair to cut the price to an area of the world where the average income is quite lower than what the US's "poor" people have.
TCO != Purchase price. Microsoft will argue that even though the purchase price of XP is higher than the purchase price of (for example) Red Hat, the TCO for maintenance, support, blah is higher for the other system than for XP. The argument is that in the long run, XP is cheaper for the consumer.
Whether you believe that or not is one thing, and whether the courts believe it or not is another thing, but the argument still makes sense. Short term savings = Linux, long term savings = Microsoft.
the first part involves selling a product below what competitors are able to charge for their products, with the intention of eliminating the competition , the second part is the intention to raise prices after the competitors are gone.
So then by your definition, Microsoft cannot be found guilty for predatory pricing either. At what point in time did Microsoft price it's OS so below the competitors as to drive them out of business? I remember $99 Windows 95. I also remember Slackware for free at the same time. Nowhere is $99 $0. I'm not sure what the price of the Mac OS was at that point in time was, but I doubt it was much different.
More data to analyze? Please explain how this helps them? All that's happening is emails are being sent with some weird subject line (the "fsname") and files are attached to that. I'm sure the body of the message somehow has the "path" of the file and other information (such as number of chunks, etc...).
Gmail itself analyses email content to see what kinds of emails you receive and then decides what ads to show you, etc...
Please tell us how analyzing this extra data actually helps Gmail do what they want. If anything, it gives them more data with NOTHING useful.
I think you should quote more of what I said.
If the system administrators are smart, they'll password protect the BIOS settings and only allow the hard drive to boot. Not floppy. Not CD. Not USB.
Thus, if the BIOS is set to NOT allow the floppy boot, they cannot boot to MSDOS to do whatever you want DEBUG to do. (What do those commands do?) Now, if you're saying all you need is to log into the machine as a user (not Administrator) and run DEBUG to do that, then that seems to be a serious problem with XP. Can you clarify what you meant?
If the system administrators are smart, they'll password protect the BIOS settings and only allow the hard drive to boot. Not floppy. Not CD. Not USB. Yes, you can reset the BIOS password, but it requires more than hitting the power button and plugging something in.