They released the "director's cut" on DVD last year. It is quite a bit longer, and in my eyes, improved. But there are still many horrible inaccuracies. Lynch took far too many creative liberties with it, and the lack of Giger's art/design made it less than it could have been. I believe you're thinking of the "Extended Edition" Dune DVD. As far as I am aware there has not been Director's cut done by David Lynch. The Extended Edition is the version they showed on TV a long time ago with some extra scenes slapped together. Though they did fill in some gaps that were in the book.
Like you said, the main selling point for Amazon Unbox, is the ability to download it straight to my Tivo. However, they also seem to get new releases within the same week or week after. Plus, their little weekend specials they have. You can sometimes rent a new release for $0.99-2.99. For a buck I'll try most movies. Even though I do have an HD setup, for $0.99 I don't care. Plus if I really wanted to see most movies in HD, I'd just go buy the Blu-Ray anyways. I just really like those Unbox specials though, which have caused me to use the service even more than I expected. It's also allowed me to watch some decent movies I wouldn't normally go out of my way to see.
I do use the Xbox 360 rental system every so often, but I hate having to deal with Microsoft Points. Plus one HD movie can easily fill up a quarter of that 20GB hard drive. My biggest movie download was probably about 6GB. We'll see what Sony does with their PS3 downloads, as I may be more willing to deal with them since they deal in cash. Though pre-purchased blocks of money, currently. If Apple or Netflix allow me to stream to one of my consoles or Tivos, then I'll probably consider them.
With my current hardware, Vista works a lot better out of the box. It doesn't support all my hardware correctly out of the box, but it supports it enough to where I can actually do something to get it to.
My 8800GTS and 30" monitor are part of the problem. The other part of the problem is what I want to use for a bootloader.
On first boot of the LiveCD, I have to specify a resolution just so I can get the status/loading graphics. After it then boots up, it mis-syncs with my monitor and I have to change to a terminal window and edit xorg.conf to specify the Vesa instead of nv for the driver. The current driver Ubuntu uses is an older driver that sees I have a Nvidia based card, but just doesn't work with the hardware. It's just a PITA to deal with. I know the reasons why Ubuntu uses the driver they do, but it'd be nice if it could see that you had a network connection and download the appropriate one.
My other problem is the way I want to boot. I like using Vista's bootloader instead of GRUB to manage everything. Why? That way if I ever need to fix Windows, I don't have to worry about it clobbering GRUB and having to reinstall it. I use it in conjunction with EasyBCD. I install GRUB to the installed linux partition and use EasyBCD to specify where it is at. Trying this with Ubuntu just keeps me at a grub> prompt. I've experimented with Grub2 with the LiveCD and the alternate install CD, etc. Just can't get it to work the way I want it.
The only Linux distro I've tried lately that works out of the box is Sabayon (based on Gentoo). It comes with the appropriate Nvidia driver, works at my monitor's native resolution, and lets me customize the GRUB install appropriately/correctly. Comes with all the necessary media drivers, etc. Some of them probably not technically "legal" for the US, but still was easy to deal with.
Well I can trade in my old PS2 to make the cost of the 20GB a lot easier to swallow ($399).
If I ever decide I want to go wireless draft N and want to stream HD, then wireless G is less desireable so that makes the internal wireless moot for me. I currently have 3 WRT54GS in WDS mode using DD-WRT. One of them services my living room for Tivos, Xbox 360, etc.
Built in card reader? Eh... I'm not sure whats stopping you from using an external one. A lot of the card readers have been free after rebate, so not too important.
Also, I can upgrade the hard drive to an internal 2.5" 120GB 5400RPM 8MB Cache drive: $100 shipped. I wouldn't feel as good about having a 60GB drive laying around as I would a 20GB.
You used to always be able to find SACD at the local Best Buy store here. Usually they were $20-30 a pop. However, their selection has slowly withered away into nothing. On the other hand DualDiscs have started taking more shelf space being mixed in with the regular CDs and in their own dedicated area and rarely costing more than $2 more than a regular CD. I do buy these since even though it has a DVD-Audio layer, it can still be used in a regular DVD player. Very handy if you have a surround stereo system and just want to be able to hear what it sounds like in surround, but use it regularly in a car. In my situation I have a DVD player in my car that has a built-in surround decoder and love these things. Unfortunately not everything released on DualDisc is surround, which I find can enhance certain types of music if mixed properly. Also they're a little thicker than a regular CD, so some slotted CD players may have issues with them.
DualDiscs are a better direction in my opinion than this.
Unfortunately it seems like console games are going for $10-20 more (possibly more with PS3) on average then a PC game. You could buy 10-15 games per year for a PC and upgrade your computer with the cost difference. Also PC Games drop in price or go on sale a lot faster than console games whether they're an excellent game or not.
Of course if everything with the Wii pans out then that may be a more worthy investment. $200-300 console $49.99 suspected game prices.
Usually if you're a developer for Windows based software you have an MSDN license to go with it. This allows you to use the latest developer tools and unlimited amount of OS installations to work with (as long as their for development of course).
Changing a font? Probably easier than ever before.
Three Options:
Option 1: Select your Text Right-click to bring up the context menu Change your font
Option 2: Select your text Hover over your selected text and you'll see the Font menu pop-up transparently Move over to the transparent pop-up and change
Option 3: Select you text Go to the ribbon and use the drop down to change the font. This interface allows a preview as you highlight each Font name or size. Which ever one you want just select and its changed.
Only gripe about Option 3 is that they should probably add transparency to the Font change menu in order to see some of the previews if the selected text is hidden underneath it.
Outlook problems: I agree Outlook can be a real pig in this beta. What improved general performance was uninstalling the Windows Search 3.0 Engine Preview. I get an annoying pop-up to "install" it, but Office (and my computer) is quite a bit faster now. The Windows Search 3.0 Engine Preview is a bloated pig and can easily take up 160MB (at least!) and slows everything down. I uninstalled it and went back to Google Desktop as the plugin still works.
You probably didn't use it with a connection that required PPPoE then. Both the stock Linksys firmware and sveasoft firmware had problems with dropping my PPPoE connections (they shared the same PPPoE client with known problems at the time). I found I also had problems with the max connections and TTL being too high by default (usually caused from some type of P2P) that when I switched to DD-WRT I was able to fix almost all of my problems. They use a different PPPoE client and made it easy to customize the max connections and TTL. Before I'd get so many outgoing connections either from P2P or my Tivo, that it would hang my main router. I use 3 routers running DD-WRT in WDS mode.
I've since switched to a cable modem so the PPPoE problem is a non-issue. I'd definately try out w23 SP1 though if anyone is interested in trying it. The improved status pages can be quite helpful especially with multiple routers.
Not really. I haven't looked at external USB/Firewire chipsets in awhile, but a lot of benchmarks showed Firewire 400 being faster in most cases. It has to do with the protocol overhead of USB 2.0 as compared to firewire. What makes USB 2.0 the most attractive is the availability of USB ports on almost all PCs these days.
70% of the oceans are fwee? That is because they are on the land you see Those dastardly Shawks are up to no good In yows and my neighbowhood Those pesky Shawks, in skin suits they hide Can't even tell if you look in their eyes So how can you tell who is one? By baiting those bastawds with a bucket of chum If that don't work, when you try Then check for gills baby, thats no lie...
Just getting computer games to work correctly caused me to learn a lot about computers. I blame them for bringing out the geek in me.
It taught me about DOS. The difference between Extended and Expanded memory (Thus getting the graphics enhancements in Wing Commander to work. Damn you EMM386!). Taught me about Interrupts and their conflicts (sound cards and video cards). Taught me networking (latency, TCP/IP, WINSOCK, routing, backbones, Modems, etc). Later in life it taught me about DirectX, OpenGL, some Linux (compiling the kernel for sound, etc).
So maybe the content hasn't teached me too much, but getting them all to work has. All that whining by my mother, about me spending so much time on the computer. Though, its partially responsible for why I have an IT job.
I've never understood. . . why the hell would you want hotplugging for internal components? Isn't it always a smart idea to turn your PC off before you reach your hands inside the case?
It's not necessarily for "internal components". It's also for entry-level servers and raid arrays. You can get hotplug bays that fit in 5 1/4" slots on a machine. This provides an easy way to swap out the drives in case of failure. If you're running a server you nor your users want downtime. If you're running RAID 1, RAID 5 or RAID 10, you want to be able to rebuild to the replacement drive before you lose another drive and lose the whole array. Its a lot faster to rebuild a single drive from the existing data on the other drives, than having to restore from tape or other backup media.
Also motherboard manufacturers are now starting to include external SATAII ports to "hotplug" external SATA drives.
First you need to be running Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 on your Exchange 2003 servers. Luckily this has been out a few months. However....
Unfortunately it requires the Messaging and Security Feature Pack for Windows Mobile. I believe Microsoft only has just recently released (December timeframe) the feature pack code to the OEMs for testing. If the device is strictly a PDA then you will need a code update from the manufacturer of the device. If you're using a smartphone/cell-enabled PDA then it is sounding like you have to get the code update from your carrier. I only know of three or four Windows Mobile 5.0 devices that the US carriers currently offer.
The problem with bundling the alternatives is that MS would be obligated to support them. I do not see that happening anytime soon (if ever). Would you want to support some other company's products? I wouldn't...
Now if the OEMs want to include the alternatives or make them an option on system builds thats a little different.
Slashdot Mirror
Like you said, the main selling point for Amazon Unbox, is the ability to download it straight to my Tivo. However, they also seem to get new releases within the same week or week after. Plus, their little weekend specials they have. You can sometimes rent a new release for $0.99-2.99. For a buck I'll try most movies. Even though I do have an HD setup, for $0.99 I don't care. Plus if I really wanted to see most movies in HD, I'd just go buy the Blu-Ray anyways. I just really like those Unbox specials though, which have caused me to use the service even more than I expected. It's also allowed me to watch some decent movies I wouldn't normally go out of my way to see.
I do use the Xbox 360 rental system every so often, but I hate having to deal with Microsoft Points. Plus one HD movie can easily fill up a quarter of that 20GB hard drive. My biggest movie download was probably about 6GB. We'll see what Sony does with their PS3 downloads, as I may be more willing to deal with them since they deal in cash. Though pre-purchased blocks of money, currently. If Apple or Netflix allow me to stream to one of my consoles or Tivos, then I'll probably consider them.
With my current hardware, Vista works a lot better out of the box. It doesn't support all my hardware correctly out of the box, but it supports it enough to where I can actually do something to get it to.
My 8800GTS and 30" monitor are part of the problem. The other part of the problem is what I want to use for a bootloader.
On first boot of the LiveCD, I have to specify a resolution just so I can get the status/loading graphics. After it then boots up, it mis-syncs with my monitor and I have to change to a terminal window and edit xorg.conf to specify the Vesa instead of nv for the driver. The current driver Ubuntu uses is an older driver that sees I have a Nvidia based card, but just doesn't work with the hardware. It's just a PITA to deal with. I know the reasons why Ubuntu uses the driver they do, but it'd be nice if it could see that you had a network connection and download the appropriate one.
My other problem is the way I want to boot. I like using Vista's bootloader instead of GRUB to manage everything. Why? That way if I ever need to fix Windows, I don't have to worry about it clobbering GRUB and having to reinstall it. I use it in conjunction with EasyBCD. I install GRUB to the installed linux partition and use EasyBCD to specify where it is at. Trying this with Ubuntu just keeps me at a grub> prompt. I've experimented with Grub2 with the LiveCD and the alternate install CD, etc. Just can't get it to work the way I want it.
The only Linux distro I've tried lately that works out of the box is Sabayon (based on Gentoo). It comes with the appropriate Nvidia driver, works at my monitor's native resolution, and lets me customize the GRUB install appropriately/correctly. Comes with all the necessary media drivers, etc. Some of them probably not technically "legal" for the US, but still was easy to deal with.
One word:
Ding!
Well I can trade in my old PS2 to make the cost of the 20GB a lot easier to swallow ($399).
If I ever decide I want to go wireless draft N and want to stream HD, then wireless G is less desireable so that makes the internal wireless moot for me. I currently have 3 WRT54GS in WDS mode using DD-WRT. One of them services my living room for Tivos, Xbox 360, etc.
Built in card reader? Eh... I'm not sure whats stopping you from using an external one. A lot of the card readers have been free after rebate, so not too important.
Also, I can upgrade the hard drive to an internal 2.5" 120GB 5400RPM 8MB Cache drive: $100 shipped. I wouldn't feel as good about having a 60GB drive laying around as I would a 20GB.
But of course everyone has different needs.
use a robot
You used to always be able to find SACD at the local Best Buy store here. Usually they were $20-30 a pop. However, their selection has slowly withered away into nothing. On the other hand DualDiscs have started taking more shelf space being mixed in with the regular CDs and in their own dedicated area and rarely costing more than $2 more than a regular CD. I do buy these since even though it has a DVD-Audio layer, it can still be used in a regular DVD player. Very handy if you have a surround stereo system and just want to be able to hear what it sounds like in surround, but use it regularly in a car. In my situation I have a DVD player in my car that has a built-in surround decoder and love these things. Unfortunately not everything released on DualDisc is surround, which I find can enhance certain types of music if mixed properly. Also they're a little thicker than a regular CD, so some slotted CD players may have issues with them.
DualDiscs are a better direction in my opinion than this.
Unfortunately it seems like console games are going for $10-20 more (possibly more with PS3) on average then a PC game. You could buy 10-15 games per year for a PC and upgrade your computer with the cost difference. Also PC Games drop in price or go on sale a lot faster than console games whether they're an excellent game or not.
Of course if everything with the Wii pans out then that may be a more worthy investment.
$200-300 console
$49.99 suspected game prices.
Just thinking out loud.
Usually if you're a developer for Windows based software you have an MSDN license to go with it. This allows you to use the latest developer tools and unlimited amount of OS installations to work with (as long as their for development of course).
Changing a font? Probably easier than ever before.
Three Options:
Option 1:
Select your Text
Right-click to bring up the context menu
Change your font
Option 2:
Select your text
Hover over your selected text and you'll see the Font menu pop-up transparently
Move over to the transparent pop-up and change
Option 3:
Select you text
Go to the ribbon and use the drop down to change the font. This interface allows a preview as you highlight each Font name or size. Which ever one you want just select and its changed.
Only gripe about Option 3 is that they should probably add transparency to the Font change menu in order to see some of the previews if the selected text is hidden underneath it.
Outlook problems:
I agree Outlook can be a real pig in this beta. What improved general performance was uninstalling the Windows Search 3.0 Engine Preview. I get an annoying pop-up to "install" it, but Office (and my computer) is quite a bit faster now. The Windows Search 3.0 Engine Preview is a bloated pig and can easily take up 160MB (at least!) and slows everything down. I uninstalled it and went back to Google Desktop as the plugin still works.
You probably didn't use it with a connection that required PPPoE then. Both the stock Linksys firmware and sveasoft firmware had problems with dropping my PPPoE connections (they shared the same PPPoE client with known problems at the time). I found I also had problems with the max connections and TTL being too high by default (usually caused from some type of P2P) that when I switched to DD-WRT I was able to fix almost all of my problems. They use a different PPPoE client and made it easy to customize the max connections and TTL. Before I'd get so many outgoing connections either from P2P or my Tivo, that it would hang my main router. I use 3 routers running DD-WRT in WDS mode.
I've since switched to a cable modem so the PPPoE problem is a non-issue. I'd definately try out w23 SP1 though if anyone is interested in trying it. The improved status pages can be quite helpful especially with multiple routers.
You forgot one important bit (to me anyways): VMWare supports 64-bit virtual machines on a 64-bit host. Currently Virtual Server doesn't.
Adolescent farm boy? Tyrannical grip?
Much darker indeed. He'll go blind!
I do have mod points right now, but there's no selection for "-666 Points Burn in Hell you dirty bastard!"
;)
Mark Hamil, uniform... EEP! While he's strutting his stuff like Britney Spears
BAHAHAHAHA!
For the women!
Err I mean, for the woman!
Err I mean, for the guys with long, flowy woman hair!
Yeah thats it..
Probably some, but they're not good protection for wet spots.
Or parents telling their kids to bring home school cafeteria pizza so they can wring out all the "grease".
Man that was some nasty stuff...
Not really. I haven't looked at external USB/Firewire chipsets in awhile, but a lot of benchmarks showed Firewire 400 being faster in most cases. It has to do with the protocol overhead of USB 2.0 as compared to firewire. What makes USB 2.0 the most attractive is the availability of USB ports on almost all PCs these days.
http://www.apple.com/macmini/
Says optical in and out, but they share the analog line in and out. Probably something like the Soundblaster miniplug to SPDIF connector.
70% of the oceans are fwee?
That is because they are on the land you see
Those dastardly Shawks are up to no good
In yows and my neighbowhood
Those pesky Shawks, in skin suits they hide
Can't even tell if you look in their eyes
So how can you tell who is one?
By baiting those bastawds with a bucket of chum
If that don't work, when you try
Then check for gills baby, thats no lie...
http://www.shawks.net/
I miss those guys...
Disclaimer: All misspellings are intentional. I am responsible for all the bad poetry.. Check for gills!
Just getting computer games to work correctly caused me to learn a lot about computers. I blame them for bringing out the geek in me.
It taught me about DOS. The difference between Extended and Expanded memory (Thus getting the graphics enhancements in Wing Commander to work. Damn you EMM386!). Taught me about Interrupts and their conflicts (sound cards and video cards). Taught me networking (latency, TCP/IP, WINSOCK, routing, backbones, Modems, etc). Later in life it taught me about DirectX, OpenGL, some Linux (compiling the kernel for sound, etc).
So maybe the content hasn't teached me too much, but getting them all to work has. All that whining by my mother, about me spending so much time on the computer. Though, its partially responsible for why I have an IT job.
It's not necessarily for "internal components". It's also for entry-level servers and raid arrays. You can get hotplug bays that fit in 5 1/4" slots on a machine. This provides an easy way to swap out the drives in case of failure. If you're running a server you nor your users want downtime. If you're running RAID 1, RAID 5 or RAID 10, you want to be able to rebuild to the replacement drive before you lose another drive and lose the whole array. Its a lot faster to rebuild a single drive from the existing data on the other drives, than having to restore from tape or other backup media.
Also motherboard manufacturers are now starting to include external SATAII ports to "hotplug" external SATA drives.
First you need to be running Exchange 2003 Service Pack 2 on your Exchange 2003 servers. Luckily this has been out a few months. However....
/ default.mspx
a milyID=e6851d23-d145-4dbf-a2cc-e0b4c6301453&Displa yLang=en
Unfortunately it requires the Messaging and Security Feature Pack for Windows Mobile. I believe Microsoft only has just recently released (December timeframe) the feature pack code to the OEMs for testing. If the device is strictly a PDA then you will need a code update from the manufacturer of the device. If you're using a smartphone/cell-enabled PDA then it is sounding like you have to get the code update from your carrier. I only know of three or four Windows Mobile 5.0 devices that the US carriers currently offer.
More info on the feature pack is available here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/business/5
Here is the ActiveSync Web Administration Tool to do remote wiping of the Windows Mobile devices:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?F
The problem with bundling the alternatives is that MS would be obligated to support them. I do not see that happening anytime soon (if ever). Would you want to support some other company's products? I wouldn't...
Now if the OEMs want to include the alternatives or make them an option on system builds thats a little different.
"Behold, the digital dong!"
;)
And appropriate for the topic