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User: daid303

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Comments · 536

  1. Re:in other news, cementing the BP CEO has started on Gulf Oil Leak Plugged? · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not responsible for the mishap, responsible for the inadequate response. Keeping officials away and not trying to solve the leak *period*, but trying to solve the leak by extracting the oil.

  2. Re:Disturbing? on Nine Chip Makers Fined $400M In EU For Price Fixing · · Score: 3, Funny

    What's this dollar you mention?

  3. Re:Aww.. on Mobile 'Remote Wipe' Thwarts Secret Service · · Score: 1

    Nothing to do with history, but with Abbreviation. United States Secret Service is USSS not SS.

  4. Re:Worse than DRM. Much worse. on Facebook, Zynga Sign Long-Term Virtual Currency Deal · · Score: 2, Funny

    That was more expensive the a one off. But she will still 'end' at some point.

  5. Re:Worse than DRM. Much worse. on Facebook, Zynga Sign Long-Term Virtual Currency Deal · · Score: 1

    This isn't about DRM, it's about buying 'virtual money' (tokens which you can exchange for objects in an online game) You can expect online support for the game to stop at some point, just as World of Warcraft will stop at some point.

    Everything you buy wears out at some point. Cloths go bad/out of style, food gets eaten/rots, online games end, life ends.

  6. Re:M.A.D. All Over Again on Critics Say US Antimissile Defense Flawed, Dangerous · · Score: 1

    What if some guy or some country becomes so insecure or so desperate that they'll stop bothering about retaliation? Emotions are irrational, you know.

    That's the problem you solve with a secret service and a tactical team.

    I'm not sure how those could intercept a missile? Maybe if you load up the team in some kind of man-cannon and then shoot them at the missile? Hoping to hit them in a shutgun fasion. Not sure if human rights groups would approve.

  7. Re:Worse than DRM. Much worse. on Facebook, Zynga Sign Long-Term Virtual Currency Deal · · Score: 0

    It's like... ...paying for food, once you ate it it's gone! ...paying for a concert, once it's finished it's gone! ...paying petrol, once you burn it it's gone! ...paying for sex, once you're done it it's gone! ...paying for theater tickets, once it's viewed it's gone!

  8. Re:Patent titles in the summary are meaningless on Microsoft Sues Salesforce.com Over Patents · · Score: 1

    Lowest patent number in there is 5,644,737, highest is 7,251,653. Now I wrongfully assume that between those two numbers there are only software patents. which makes 1,606,917 patents. How in the hell are they making sure none of those patents cover the same thing? And how in the hell should I find out if something I made infringes any of those patents?

  9. Re:Aww.. on Mobile 'Remote Wipe' Thwarts Secret Service · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I might have been playing to much Commandos, The Saboteur, Wolvenstein and Day of Defeat. But when you say S.S. I think about a whole different kind of 'cop'.

    Scary enough, you see them the same way as the original S.S. was seen by the public many years ago.

  10. Re:MythTV rant on MythTV 0.23 Released · · Score: 1

    Never to late with email notification ;)

    The USB hardware works fine, the CPU works fine, the memory works fine (always run memtest on new hardware) mencoder runs fine, cat /dev/video0 > file.mpg works fine for hours, mplayer /dev/video0 works fine. Compiling kernels and compiling myhttv worked fine. Only thing that crashed from time to time was the mythbackend.

  11. Re:MythTV rant on MythTV 0.23 Released · · Score: 1

    I tried mythbuntu at first, but for some unknown reason that didn't install the mythtv package. So I installed normal ubuntu and mythtv on top. I'm no stranger to installing missing packages, or compiling stuff from source, creating databases, and adding startup scripts. And that's not what bothered me (I guess there are distros that set this up for you without issues)

    Just... pick some random person, which computer experiance, start 'myth-setup', give him the keyboard and the mouse, and watch. The 'everything needs to be configurable with 5 buttons from a remote' UI just hurts. Mix that with many, many strange configuration options, unclear defaults and you have setup hell.

    Compared to XBMC, I started it, and it worked. Only thing you needed to configure is the weather location. Everything else just works, and with 4 keys (up/down/enter/escape) sure, it doesn't do TV recording, but it does give a whole different user experience.

  12. Re:MythTV rant on MythTV 0.23 Released · · Score: 1

    MythTV has its weaknesses (mostly UI related), but I'm not sure what you mean by this:

    Does it record to two files if the shows overlap (due to begin/end padding)? Or does it still decide the two shows conflict, and records only one, or records both but only one partial?

    The answer: it depends. MythTV will do the following: if possible, it will record each show in its entirety, with the padding requested by the user (this is configurable on a global and per-recording level). Say you have show A and show B, where show A ends at the same time that show B begins: MythTV it will do its best to preserve both shows, but it's limited by how many tuners you have. With two tuners of equal priority, MythTV will record show A on tuner 1 (including any pre/post padding) and show B on tuner 2 (also including any pre/post padding).

    If you only have one tuner, then MythTV obviously can't do that (indeed, no DVR really could). What happens in this case is that MythTV "throws away" the padding in its calculations; so it records show A (but no post-padding) and immediately switches to show B (with no pre-padding). In an ideal world with good schedule data from the TV stations, that would be good enough, but shows often run over/under (which is why you have the "padding" option), so in this case you might lose a few seconds of each show (assuming A runs long and B starts early). MythTV figures that the padding is "nice to have" but, if it can't guarantee that padding, it also figures you'd rather have the show as scheduled than no show at all.

    By the way, if you dig deep, most of these things can be modified. MythTV's defaults in this case do what I believe most people would want to do, but they can be extensively modified to taste.

    I forgot to add "on the same channel". What happens is, there are 3 shows that I watch that are on the same channel, and they start after each other. Due to schedules not being very accurate I have 10 minutes padding on both ends. So recording starts 10 minutes before the first show, records the first show, up till the point where the schedule ends, starts with the 2nd show in a new file, same for the 3th show, and then stops recording 10 minutes after the last show.

    As I don't watch everything at once, I first watch the first show. And a few days later I want to watch the 2nd, but the first few minutes of the 2nd show are in the file of the first show (if it started early), so you need to find the first show, watch the last few minutes of that file and then continue in the other file.
    Instead, my own scripts just record to two files at once during the overlap. That way I always have 1 show in 1 file, no need to search for other files, no need to preserve files because they contain a few minutes of unwatched shows.

  13. Re:MythTV rant on MythTV 0.23 Released · · Score: 1

    Does it record to two files if the shows overlap (due to begin/end padding)?

    Yes. You can create up to five virtual tuners per tuner card, which will solve this problem.

    I hope you are joking... right? That's the 'sollution'? And then people wonder why I rant that it's a configuration hell?

    Does it allow me find&copy the recorded files to another machine so I can watch them on the road? (searching trough the hashed filenames is no fun)

    Sometimes I have copied an episode or a movie straight from the Mythweb interface to some other computer.

    Must have missed the download link in mythweb. My bad.

  14. Re:MythTV is really quite good on MythTV 0.23 Released · · Score: 1

    Oops, my mistake, I forgot to add "satellite" in the mix there. Hooking up a TV/screen is all X, I know. No problems there. It's the satellite tuner that's hell to configure.

  15. Re:MythTV rant on MythTV 0.23 Released · · Score: 1

    I already pointed out in another post that the hardware has been replaced (P3 -> ATOM) and the tuner is a WinTV-PVR-USB2, which runs without problems with my own scripts (and the backend also crashed when not recording)
    Also, the machine runs more then just my media center (webserver, subversion repository, backup jobs) and none of those crash.

  16. Re:MythTV is really quite good on MythTV 0.23 Released · · Score: 1

    - MythTV most certainly does have an overlapping recording option. It can be set per show, per show instance, per channel, etc.

    Apperently not on by default? And hidden away in the darkest corners of MythTV? or added somewhere after 0.22

    - hardware support. While MythTV's hardware support is better than most, I suspect most of your crashing problems came from using subpar hardware devices. Most myth users choose the best transcoding hardware, and the backend support is top notch for a few key recording devices. Choose one of them when building a myth box and you will have great stability

    WinTV-PVR-USB2 drivers support is no issue, with my own PHP script no issues, and crashes happened during recording as well as when not recording. Machine started out as a Pentium 3, but is a silent ATOM based now, crashes happened on both.
    It's the most basic hardware you can find, it just outputs an MPEG2 stream. I could just "cat /dev/video0 > file.mpg" and it would store the currently tuned in channel.

    - commercial detection, and automatic commercial skipping. Not perfect, but works very well.

    As I pointed out in another post, doesn't work at all in the netherlands.

    - really great recording profiles and guide support (I.e., it's easy to hook up one digital HDTV antenna, and then a digital cable source, and have them both with completely different channel and guide data)

    College of mine has digital HDTV and he told me it was a hell to configure it with MythTV. And it sometimes seems to lose recording status of shows. He is also afraid to upgrade, as the last 3 times that he did that it broke.

  17. Re:MythTV rant on MythTV 0.23 Released · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Does it record to two files if the shows overlap (due to begin/end padding)? Or does it still decide the two shows conflict, and records only one, or records both but only one partial?
    Does mythweb has a record button on the shedule overview? or do I still need to go to the show page, change the state to record, save, and then go back to the shedule?
    Does it play DVDs out of the box?
    Does it allow me find&copy the recorded files to another machine so I can watch them on the road? (searching trough the hashed filenames is no fun)
    (Looks like I missed a few)

    My needs just don't match with the priorities of the MythTV team. Commercial flagging doesn't work here in the netherlands, don't need repeated shows, reencoding options are tough to setup, I don't need scheduling from the frontend, I don't need multiple machines.
    Basicly, MythTV is great for a power user, but is really sucks for the basic user.

  18. MythTV rant on MythTV 0.23 Released · · Score: 3, Interesting

    MythTV is a mess. I used 0.21 for a while, and it took me quite a while to configure right, the scanning for channels crashed, backend crashed from time to time. The UI is not friendly for a media player.
    I looked under the hood and quickly ran away, database is a mess, codebase is huge.

    I wanted a few simple things:
    -1 machine, which can record TV shows and watch them later
    -Play other media files
    -Have a web interface to choose what to record

    MythTV with MythWeb and MythVideo should be able to do this all, but I never got the other media to work. That with the crashing backend, unfriendly configuration tool and stupid frontend UI. And it has no 'overlap in 2 shows' option, if 2 shows follow eachother on the same channel, why not save the overlapping time in both files? If the 2nd show starts early and I have watched and deleted the first show then I mis the first part of the 2nd show. Totally pissed me off.

    Then I found XBMC, which does a wonderful job at playing media files. But doesn't do any recording. I already had tv_grab_nl_py for guide data, my TV tuner is a simple V4L device that gives an MPEG stream, so 1000 lines of PHP code later I had a daemon that records TV shows, a webinterface where I can select what to record. With thumb generation, reencoding. Basicly I replaced the whole of MythTV with 1000 lines of php and XBMC (in my case) which is running stable for months now.

  19. Re:Government Services on FCC's Broadband Plan May Cost You Money · · Score: 1

    Switch provider. 20/1 MB is 20 euro: http://www.online.nl/alle-producten/internet/

    I was paying 28 euro for 4MB at the same ISP, but they called me that I could switch, get more speed and pay less. Only catch is that you are 'stuck' with it for 12 months. Now that's service I would say.

  20. Re:Don't mix it up with Chat Roulette... on N.Y. Health Insurers To Offer Virtual Doc Visits · · Score: 3, Funny

    As some people would pay to watch it, it could pay of your health bills.

  21. Re:I wonder... on New Phone Allows Bosses To Snoop On Staff · · Score: 1

    On the production end of the hammer would work wonders!

  22. Re:It takes more than this to make an XO on Pixel Qi Introduces a DIY Kit · · Score: 1

    I don't think I'm alone in wishing for an OMAP4-based Linux netbook.

    While a bit smaller then a netbook, the http://www.open-pandora.org/ is as close as you can get it for an OMAP4 based linux netbook right now (well, in 2 months, when it gets released)

  23. Re:Any word about the write cycles limit? on Western Digital Launches First SSD · · Score: 4, Informative

    Wear leveling isn't some magical pixie dust that suddenly solves the write cycle limit. It just spreads the writes so that it takes longer wear it out.

    But for some numbers they give (if I read it right) they say you can write 42.1GB each day on the largest (256GB) for 5 years. Which is about 76832GB before it goes 'poof'.

    And some more info, the 256GB SSD contains 16x K9MDG08U5M-PCB00 chips. Which are 128Gbit each. Which comes to 256GB, which is odd, as you need spare space for wear leveling. But, specs save us again. 256GB SSD contains: 500118192 user sectors. Which is 238GB in flash. So that leaves 18GB for wear leveling.
    (See: http://www.samsung.com/global/system/business/semiconductor/family/2010/1/1/Nand_Flash.pdf for info about the chip size)

    Uh, where was I going with this? 42.1GB each day, or a max of 76832TB writing. On 238GB, which is 322 full write cycles.

  24. Re:Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance on When PC Ports of Console Games Go Wrong · · Score: 1

    Tried to play the VR missions? There are 1st person missions where you need to aim with the keyboard. Made me feel all duke3d once again. Still finished them all!

    I still loved the game, and loved them for making a PC port, no matter how "bad" it was to configure.

  25. Re:Oh, No!! Not a Strongly Worded Message!! on Google To Restart Talks With China · · Score: 2, Funny

    I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough water! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!

    Now go away before I taunt you a second time.