Agreed. While their momentary priorities are understandable, they need to put the Add-Ons in play ASAP for precisely the reasons you described. It's as if they had just sold you a hamburger with only meat and bread, while withholding all the condiments until they could finish slaughtering the cattle. (OK, so my AnalogyIzer isn't working so well, today, but ya know what I'm sayin'.)
One thing it was believed we boomers all would do with such recorders is copy our old 1980s and 1990s camcorder tapes to DVD to preserve them. However, with the advent of personal computers equipped with DVD burners and, often, cool-to-middlin' video editing software, that ceased to be a realistic draw. Besides: sooner or later you'd have copied them all over to DVD and -- then what? With the DVD-equipped computer, you've still got other things to do. With the dedicated DVD recorder, you've got an expensive doorstop.
Realistically, how many people don't already subscribe to satellite TV or already have digital cable?
There are many smaller towns whose cable providers currently don't even offer digital as an option; everyone receives 50 or 60 channels straight to the TV via coax with no STBs involved whatsoever.
For such providers' customers, the next 13 months may be very interesting -- in the "Chinese curse" sense of that word.
The original Ford Mustang retailed for somewhere around $3000. That's inflation for ya.
That was in 1964, when a U.S. family of four could live comfortably (if not luxuriously) on less than $10,000 a year. (Ours did, which is how I know.) "That's inflation for ya," indeed.
we're about to move to HDTV in about a year and so what!
Actually, it's just digital TV that will be mandated in the U.S. as of February, 2009. Certainly, a lot of it will be high-res, but that's not required. Otherwise, there'd be decades worth of old movies and TV reruns you'd never see on-air again -- although, depending on one's POV, that wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing.
The 30 December 2007 Dallas Morning News featured an informative letter (I can't find a link to an online version of the letter; sorry) replying to an earlier DMN article about the DVD format wars. One of the major points of the letter was that, essentially, unless one has a very large-screen HDTV, the upconversion of conventional DVDs is so good that it's not worth paying the premium of the HD-DVD or Blu-Ray disks. Unless the industry realizes it can't win while those higher prices exist, the vast majority of consumers will continue to say "regular" DVDs are good enough, thank you very much.
Mr. Gates wasn't all that interested in this Internet thing at the time. Even as late as 1994, his book The Road Ahead barely addressed it at all, although the accompanying CD had some mildly entertaining video about how the "family of the future" (or somesuch) would be using what clearly had to be the 'Net. Whether it used the agonizing phrase "information superhighway," I mercifully don't recall.
Its brochure says the ZENN car's maximum speed is 25 mph. Although the reasoning behind that is fairly sound — it's designed for traffic-choked urban areas and slow-speed-zone residential areas — but, still... 25 mph...
The Google video about this (linked from TFA) is a bit all over the map, to put it mildly. It must be nice having so much frickin' money that you can wallow like that.
If there's a downside to Google's upgrade, it's that third-party extensions to Gmail may stop working.
So now I know why my GMail notifier add-on to Firefox died in the last couple of days. Went with Google's own notifier applet as a substitute in the meantime, but would prefer the old way. We'll see how soon that becomes possible.
I personally do not mind HD or widescreen. I'm just boggled by people who buy 30-35 inch systems and up. (well, I can see 30 inch maybe.....)
I thought the same until I did a little measuring and a little math. Turns out it takes approximately a 37-inch 16:9 display to give you the same picture height to which you're accustomed with a 27-inch 4:3 display.
For one example: If you're using Verizon FIOS and -- as is typical for such installs -- your copper has been replaced by the fiber, the battery backup is just to continue providing telephone service (to fulfill E-911 requirements, if memory serves). It doesn't continue to allow either Internet or (where available) TV service. [A peripherally related Broadband Reports forum thread: here.]
No, it's not the end of the world to have them combined, but in this case, with a very nice monitor and nice computer specs, it would be more valuable to the consumer to have them seperate.
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Even though you misspelled domain, it's still a good line.
Agreed. While their momentary priorities are understandable, they need to put the Add-Ons in play ASAP for precisely the reasons you described. It's as if they had just sold you a hamburger with only meat and bread, while withholding all the condiments until they could finish slaughtering the cattle. (OK, so my AnalogyIzer isn't working so well, today, but ya know what I'm sayin'.)
This is particularly instructive regarding the IT profession and "millennials" (18- to 31-year-olds) and "Generation X" (32- to 42-year-olds).
One thing it was believed we boomers all would do with such recorders is copy our old 1980s and 1990s camcorder tapes to DVD to preserve them. However, with the advent of personal computers equipped with DVD burners and, often, cool-to-middlin' video editing software, that ceased to be a realistic draw. Besides: sooner or later you'd have copied them all over to DVD and -- then what? With the DVD-equipped computer, you've still got other things to do. With the dedicated DVD recorder, you've got an expensive doorstop.
"BREAKING NEWS! [SFX: Ridiculously melodramatic sounder]
"NASA now says an asteroid impact on Mars is now three times more likely than previously thought.
"At this rate, the impact's likelihood will exceed 150% in just a few days."
Your word for today is "zoning."
Actually, Food Network does have an HD version. It's on FIOS, and probably other sources as well.
The 30 December 2007 Dallas Morning News featured an informative letter (I can't find a link to an online version of the letter; sorry) replying to an earlier DMN article about the DVD format wars. One of the major points of the letter was that, essentially, unless one has a very large-screen HDTV, the upconversion of conventional DVDs is so good that it's not worth paying the premium of the HD-DVD or Blu-Ray disks. Unless the industry realizes it can't win while those higher prices exist, the vast majority of consumers will continue to say "regular" DVDs are good enough, thank you very much.
Mod parent UP, please!!
Talk about a way to get "buzz" for your Web site...
Mr. Gates wasn't all that interested in this Internet thing at the time. Even as late as 1994, his book The Road Ahead barely addressed it at all, although the accompanying CD had some mildly entertaining video about how the "family of the future" (or somesuch) would be using what clearly had to be the 'Net. Whether it used the agonizing phrase "information superhighway," I mercifully don't recall.
Its brochure says the ZENN car's maximum speed is 25 mph. Although the reasoning behind that is fairly sound — it's designed for traffic-choked urban areas and slow-speed-zone residential areas — but, still... 25 mph...
The Google video about this (linked from TFA) is a bit all over the map, to put it mildly. It must be nice having so much frickin' money that you can wallow like that.
Ya in certain parts of the country. You mean you've never been lawyer beating?
Is that a regional substitute for cow-tipping?
For one example: If you're using Verizon FIOS and -- as is typical for such installs -- your copper has been replaced by the fiber, the battery backup is just to continue providing telephone service (to fulfill E-911 requirements, if memory serves). It doesn't continue to allow either Internet or (where available) TV service. [A peripherally related Broadband Reports forum thread: here.]
No, it's not the end of the world to have them combined, but in this case, with a very nice monitor and nice computer specs, it would be more valuable to the consumer to have them seperate.
So much for laptops...
You could be right, but "I'm a Windows / I'm an OS X" would sound kinda funny.