Actually MS is getting ready to introduce something very much like an ORM layer called LINQ/DLINQ. You can find out more here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/ref/linq/
The worm only attacks SQL Servers with blank sa (administrator) passwords. It isn't a security hole that needs patching. It's just poor administrators.
In most cases if you compared the price of a TiVo to the price of a ReplayTV you'd find that the TiVo plus it's lifetime subscriptions fee equals the ReplayTV. Basically they are both getting the same amount of money out of you. TiVo just chose to split part of their purchase price out as a subscription fee so you could pay it monthly if you chose.
The new ReplayTV 4000's are now available. These suckers aren't cheap. They add commercial skip and the ability to share shows over a broadband connection.
Personally I have a ReplayTV and LOVE it. I don't know how people can watch TV without one. It truly changes how you watch televison.
I have unhooked my VCR and with any luck I'll never hook it up again.
This article suprised me. It's below your usual standards.
I've personally not seen any advertisement from ReplayTV or TiVo promoting the ability to skip commercials.
"ReplayTV has plans to somehow add its own commercials to the system" - For a short time ReplayTV would show product information when the system was paused. This would be similar to having your screen saver display a commercial.
"Is it any different to steal programming by skipping the commercials (which paid for the programs) than it is to download a song?" Absolutely. And I have two arguments here. First, I have cable and the majority of the channels I pay for. Second, is it wrong for me to record a song of the radio? Once they broadcast it into my house I should be able to do what I want with it. If I get up to go to the bathroom during a commercial am I stealing their broadcasts? How about if I make a sandwich?
I still watch commercials on my Replay. I just watch the good commercials. And I rewind the great ones and I watch them again. And again. And when a broadcaster plays me the same commercial for the fifth time in a show I skip it. When a broadcaster shows a commercial that isn't appropriate for me (such as allergy medication) I skip it. When a broadcaster shows me a commercial for something I'm interested in I usually watch it. Sometimes more than once.
"and the TV folk seem strangely oblivious to the threat". Wrong again John. The major TV companies (ABC, NBC, CBS) are all investors in TiVo or ReplayTV. 60 Minutes recently did a special on this and covered this angle much better.
"And let's not ignore the complexity of these systems. The remote control for PVRs has more buttons than a TV control room. While the on-screen programming is supposed to be simplified, it will be too much work for people who can't set the clock on the VCR." The remote does have extra buttons. I also has buttons I'd never seen before such as skip forward and skip back. That's because it has features that have never been available before. The on screen programming is amazingly simple. You scroll through the guide until you find the show you want and click on the record button. A simple menu allows you to set record options. I don't even recall setting the date or time on my ReplayTV. I think it did this automatically. These devices are more complex than a toaster but they provide so much more functionality. They are certainly much less complex than any computer I've ever used.
"Finally, do PVRs work as advertised? These devices require a phone line and telecommunications access--a hassle in itself." How else do you expect to bring the program guide down? I'd agree a broadband connection would be better but phone lines are still the most common. Many satellite can cable TV subscribers have managed to have a phone line setup near their TV without complaint. Why is it so hard now?
"I personally had trouble getting a ReplayTV unit to work because a computer server was down someplace. Online discussion groups are complaining about the "shrinking disk" phenomenon with the newer UltimateTV system. Apparently, 30 hours of available storage slowly shrinks to nil after a while, making the unit relatively useless. Microsoft says it has heard of the problem and is 'looking into it.'" A bug? In software? Tell me it isn't so. This just isn't a fair comment. My ReplayTV has worked flawlessly for over a year. MS released a buggy new product. That's hardly news and certainly shouldn't suprise you.
I've been reading your columns for years and I've always enjoyed them. This column is an exception. Your usual insight is lacking here as well as accuracy and fact checking.
I find your arguments typical of people that have just begun using one of devices. Wait about 3-4 weeks and see if you can live without it. They are amazing devices and will change the way we watch television.
You can also set a HighRate value that gives you two choices on the rate. I haven't figured out the key names that will give you a list of choices yet.
I think in his story he hit on the key point. You must "file" your software in order to have the full protection under the law. If you don't take the steps the laws require you can't expect to benefit under them.
The problem is not that a large company abused an individual (though they certainly did). The problem is that this individual didn't understand the laws he was trying to take advantage of.
You don't need to spend thousands on a lawyer for that either. My father (a CS professor) figured it out in 1983 when he sold software. He did a little research and found out he needed to file the software in order to have full protection under the law. No lawyer involved.
I'm sorry but I think this is making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Actually I think it's the 5th in the "industrial strength" operating system saga. NT 3.1, NT 3.51, NT4, Win2K and now WinXP. The various flavors of 95 and 98 came from a different code base.
It also makes me wonder how much time they spent considering possible abbreviations when they named this version of Windows.
I use a utility called SyncIt to keep bookmarks on three PC's synced. I can add links on any one of the PC's and it will appear on the other two. No web pages to visit. It's transparent to me that it's even running.
You can find a great site for fuel cell information and news at The Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Investor Site. This is probably the best overall site out there for both hard science and news (hype) about fuel cells.
While Toyota and Honda are currently selling hybrid gas-electric cars, fuel cells are probably a more realistic long term solution. A fuel cell combines hydrogen and oxygen into water with no other significant waste product. The energy given off by that process is used to power the fuel cell. Fuel cells were used to power the Apollo spacecraft.
You can check out two good web sites on fuel cells. The first is at FuelCellTalk.com and is actually a site based on SlashCode so you should be right at home:) The second is H2FC.com. It's a great general reference for fuel cells.
We're probably still a few years away from purchasable fuel cell vehicles. A Canadian company called Ballard Power has agreement with Ford and DaimlerChrysler to work on fuel cell vehicles.
Problems still remain in the area of hydrogen storage but we'll get those figured out:) Cheers.
It seems to me that the key for this to happen is how good service is at your house. You are only trying to replace one phone and so you only care about service at that location for comparison. Personally I have great service at my home (Sprint PCS) and have switched most people to use my cellular. I have a cable modem for Internet access. The only thing I use my regular phone for is telemarketers. I bought a phone with Caller ID in the handset and I just never, ever answer the darn thing unless I know who it is. I never give my cellular number to companies so it doesn't appear in those nasty phone spam databases. I guess you could call my old land line a phone spam trap:)
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Actually MS is getting ready to introduce something very much like an ORM layer called LINQ/DLINQ. You can find out more here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/ref/linq/
Did she wear contacts or glasses before she started? If she'd contact me directly I'd be interested to hear what she's thinks of it.
The worm only attacks SQL Servers with blank sa (administrator) passwords. It isn't a security hole that needs patching. It's just poor administrators.
Dominate? They were three books. And average ones at that.
ReplayTV doesn't have any subscription fees.
In most cases if you compared the price of a TiVo to the price of a ReplayTV you'd find that the TiVo plus it's lifetime subscriptions fee equals the ReplayTV. Basically they are both getting the same amount of money out of you. TiVo just chose to split part of their purchase price out as a subscription fee so you could pay it monthly if you chose.
The new ReplayTV 4000's are now available. These suckers aren't cheap. They add commercial skip and the ability to share shows over a broadband connection.
Personally I have a ReplayTV and LOVE it. I don't know how people can watch TV without one. It truly changes how you watch televison.
I have unhooked my VCR and with any luck I'll never hook it up again.
This subject has been kicked around quite a bit at the AVS PC convergence forum.
At a former employer, management was constantly extolling the virtues of email and it's benefits to the company.
I suggested if that were true they should pay me per email sent and received..
They declined.
This article suprised me. It's below your usual standards.
I've personally not seen any advertisement from ReplayTV or TiVo promoting the ability to skip commercials.
"ReplayTV has plans to somehow add its own commercials to the system" - For a short time ReplayTV would show product information when the system was paused. This would be similar to having your screen saver display a commercial.
"Is it any different to steal programming by skipping the commercials (which paid for the programs) than it is to download a song?" Absolutely. And I have two arguments here. First, I have cable and the majority of the channels I pay for. Second, is it wrong for me to record a song of the radio? Once they broadcast it into my house I should be able to do what I want with it. If I get up to go to the bathroom during a commercial am I stealing their broadcasts? How about if I make a sandwich?
I still watch commercials on my Replay. I just watch the good commercials. And I rewind the great ones and I watch them again. And again. And when a broadcaster plays me the same commercial for the fifth time in a show I skip it. When a broadcaster shows a commercial that isn't appropriate for me (such as allergy medication) I skip it. When a broadcaster shows me a commercial for something I'm interested in I usually watch it. Sometimes more than once.
"and the TV folk seem strangely oblivious to the threat". Wrong again John. The major TV companies (ABC, NBC, CBS) are all investors in TiVo or ReplayTV. 60 Minutes recently did a special on this and covered this angle much better.
"And let's not ignore the complexity of these systems. The remote control for PVRs has more buttons than a TV control room. While the on-screen programming is supposed to be simplified, it will be too much work for people who can't set the clock on the VCR." The remote does have extra buttons. I also has buttons I'd never seen before such as skip forward and skip back. That's because it has features that have never been available before. The on screen programming is amazingly simple. You scroll through the guide until you find the show you want and click on the record button. A simple menu allows you to set record options. I don't even recall setting the date or time on my ReplayTV. I think it did this automatically. These devices are more complex than a toaster but they provide so much more functionality. They are certainly much less complex than any computer I've ever used.
"Finally, do PVRs work as advertised? These devices require a phone line and telecommunications access--a hassle in itself." How else do you expect to bring the program guide down? I'd agree a broadband connection would be better but phone lines are still the most common. Many satellite can cable TV subscribers have managed to have a phone line setup near their TV without complaint. Why is it so hard now?
"I personally had trouble getting a ReplayTV unit to work because a computer server was down someplace. Online discussion groups are complaining about the "shrinking disk" phenomenon with the newer UltimateTV system. Apparently, 30 hours of available storage slowly shrinks to nil after a while, making the unit relatively useless. Microsoft says it has heard of the problem and is 'looking into it.'" A bug? In software? Tell me it isn't so. This just isn't a fair comment. My ReplayTV has worked flawlessly for over a year. MS released a buggy new product. That's hardly news and certainly shouldn't suprise you.
I've been reading your columns for years and I've always enjoyed them. This column is an exception. Your usual insight is lacking here as well as accuracy and fact checking.
I find your arguments typical of people that have just begun using one of devices. Wait about 3-4 weeks and see if you can live without it. They are amazing devices and will change the way we watch television.
You can also set a HighRate value that gives you two choices on the rate. I haven't figured out the key names that will give you a list of choices yet.
The problem is not that a large company abused an individual (though they certainly did). The problem is that this individual didn't understand the laws he was trying to take advantage of.
You don't need to spend thousands on a lawyer for that either. My father (a CS professor) figured it out in 1983 when he sold software. He did a little research and found out he needed to file the software in order to have full protection under the law. No lawyer involved.
I'm sorry but I think this is making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Actually I think it's the 5th in the "industrial strength" operating system saga. NT 3.1, NT 3.51, NT4, Win2K and now WinXP. The various flavors of 95 and 98 came from a different code base. It also makes me wonder how much time they spent considering possible abbreviations when they named this version of Windows.
I use a utility called SyncIt to keep bookmarks on three PC's synced. I can add links on any one of the PC's and it will appear on the other two. No web pages to visit. It's transparent to me that it's even running.
What are the odds that a story appears on both slashdot and memepool at the same time? Talk about a cross-over hit!
You can find a great site for fuel cell information and news at The Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Investor Site. This is probably the best overall site out there for both hard science and news (hype) about fuel cells.
While Toyota and Honda are currently selling hybrid gas-electric cars, fuel cells are probably a more realistic long term solution. A fuel cell combines hydrogen and oxygen into water with no other significant waste product. The energy given off by that process is used to power the fuel cell. Fuel cells were used to power the Apollo spacecraft.
:) The second is H2FC.com. It's a great general reference for fuel cells.
:) Cheers.
You can check out two good web sites on fuel cells. The first is at FuelCellTalk.com and is actually a site based on SlashCode so you should be right at home
We're probably still a few years away from purchasable fuel cell vehicles. A Canadian company called Ballard Power has agreement with Ford and DaimlerChrysler to work on fuel cell vehicles.
Problems still remain in the area of hydrogen storage but we'll get those figured out
It seems to me that the key for this to happen is how good service is at your house. You are only trying to replace one phone and so you only care about service at that location for comparison. Personally I have great service at my home (Sprint PCS) and have switched most people to use my cellular. I have a cable modem for Internet access. The only thing I use my regular phone for is telemarketers. I bought a phone with Caller ID in the handset and I just never, ever answer the darn thing unless I know who it is. I never give my cellular number to companies so it doesn't appear in those nasty phone spam databases. I guess you could call my old land line a phone spam trap :)
Check out this item on eBay! $10,000,000 already. I wonder what the SlashDot users could drive this up to?