I think the alure of apple is to a large part the hardware. OSX is great, but what makes it great is that it works on the hardware solidly, because apple is in control of that.
If they released it to a general x86 environment, that edge is gone and they have to start doing the same crappy thing that MS does with trying to support every damn thing old and new made for x86 platform.
And they can't compete like that.
If they do decide to come out with x86 (maybe to gain some speed increases and take advantage of things like WINE), then they most likely will control the hardware again, making sure that OSX will only run on something with the correct bios. The overall cost of the system may come down, but would still not be competitive to other PCs.
Apple's current systems with OSX just work. I haven't had to fuss at all. Coming from tech background on the windows side, it took a while for me to realize that everything was already setup correctly. Was a bit frustrating at first, but eventually I learned to relax.
Heres a mac feature that I love. If you have a shortcut (or a data file) on your system and you move the application, the mac knows. No broken links or shortcuts. No missing data. Its great.
I've been noticing this for a while. Take a look at the Apple articles that hit the front page (not the ones that are in the Apple section only). They consistently get a higher number of comments than most of the other articles that I see.
I have a Mac and love it. I'm a switcher (though I switched before those commercials) because I wanted to work on FCP. I love every minute of mac.
I haven't been this excited about computers and computing in general for a long time.
You'd be wrong. Even the officially sanctioned novels feature such gems as Ikrit, the Jedi Master bunny rabbit. Even Lucas hasn't dreamed up something that stupid (yet).
And this is where their understanding fails. If they are applying this only to Emails or other forms of internet communication where the the information is sent from the 'publisher' to individuals all over the world, then they have a point.
But in a general way, the Web is a fetch medium. I ask for info from your server which you supply. But I have to ask! My local browser has to request the information for it to be provided to me. Its more like me calling a long distance porn line from my home town than it is like a porn phone line setting up shop in the middle of town.
TIVO is as accurate as the information that the company received from... (I forget the name of the company that does the listings). The information is as up to date as your last successful call in.
So if ABC says Mahr is on at Midnight, that's what time TIVO records it. If they have an accurate time, then TIVO records that.
As far as special things like Buffy, yes it did know to record for an extra 10 minutes. It also knew that Jerimiah was going to be on 15 minutes late last week.
It knows that a show is pre-empted for a different show. It knows quite a lot -- a lot more than I'm willing to sit down and figure out on my own.
I don't know the All In Wonder's functionality, but if you're going to compare it to TIVO, you have to compare a lot more of the features.
Does the card allow you to record one show while watching another show that has already been recorded (without dropping frames)? Does it allow you to watch the show it is recording 15 minutes behind what its recording?
Is it always recording so that if I want to pause or rewind, I can. If after watching it for 20 minutes, I decide I'd like a to record it, is it able to record the entire show (including the 20 minutes I've just watched)?
If not, it aint a TIVO.
I can Vid cap right now to my hearts content. But that aint TIVO either. Because if it doesn't have all those wonderful extra features, whats the real difference between it and a VCR (with VCR+)?
What's changed is that the suggestions now are getting information through the call. It indexes the suggestions sort of like Amazon's suggestions. It looks for other user's likes and dislikes. So if you like show X, tivo knows that 100 other people who liked show X like show Y but not show Z, and acts accordingly.
Look for this to get better and better with time.
But it does leave the option of trying to social engineer the suggestions. It also may leave a wide open gap for Tivo to make a suggestion of their own (which I think already happens).
I'm a beta tester, and since firebolt is out, I'm free to talk.
The broadcast is a way to load data through the tv instead of through the phone line. It allows (if it works) a way to get a bulk of data through broadcast and then the machine will only call for incremental data updates.
That is, if it works. Digital cable can mess up the signal, so the tivo tries to get the program from the analog portion of the channels. It does work over DirecTV, for most users.
Its nothing fancy yet, but a better way to help with the large costs of the phone services. If you can reduce your connect time for a majority of the machines, you save lots of money.
3.0 is nice. Not great, since its mostly a backend upgrade, but nice. Menus are much quicker and more responsive.
Backdoors are officially closed, but we'll see if they stay that way. The old passwords no longer work, and the new one is encrypted. But again, we'll see what happens in the next month or two.
I would maintain that you've missed the point of games. If it was true that in games "You are supposed to win by any means necessary," then I would posit that most games would be unplayable. If you took the field in Football and the other team's coach shoots you with a sniper rifle, that would be winning by any means necessary. Games have rules for a reason.
The example you brought up to support your point isn't valid. Even if we disregard that Matrix is a movie, not a game, the premise is closer to a war than a game. The war is between humans and the machines. Any means necessary can be more valid in a war setting than a game setting.
I would also say that you've completely missed the point of gaming. I can out ride a 3 year old, but it doesn't make it fun. Maybe you can take your obvious skills and pit them against other bot-makers and try to see how fun that might be. Which bot maker is the best, etc. Try it, you may have something that you've been missing -- real fun.
IANAL, or even close to one, but I'm not sure what insider abuse could be considered here, since this has nothing to do with investment, or insider trading.
Since the deal is between them, and they are suing each other, couldn't they agree to anything they want to agree to? Its not like they couldn't just sue MS right now with the patents that they have (unless they can't - ie MS doesn't infringe). So suing each other isn't underhanded in that way. It just gives them more legal weight behind their patents. It would discourage MS from contesting if the patents were already validated by the court system.
I dunno. I think its actually not the case. I think its business as usuall, but I like the theory presented by the person on AVS, so I put it out here.
Someone on the AVS Tivo board suggested that this may be a gambit by both TIVO and SonicBlue to validate their Patents.
When you think about it, it comes at an odd time (with TIVO being awarded more patents.) This person suggested that SonicBlue would sue TIVO over certain patents, TIVO would countersue, both would settle and cross-license and the patents in question would have precedent in the court system. Both could then turn on MS and demand licensing fees for the validated patents.
Actually, if MS did this, they would ensure that the breakup would indeed happen. After a couple of ineffective contempt rulings, the issue might be reconsidered under a contempt ruling and harsher penalties imposed.
One rule of the land, you never fsck with a judge.
>The only way to do this with a computer is to have two tuner cards and a TV out card because it says the ability to watch one program on your television while recording another on in MPEG format.
Not even that easy. With TIVO, you can watch the program you are currently recording as well. Jump to live, back to the beginning, whatever.
Its not obvious as you think it would be. Without fail, when I describe my TIVO to people, they think it sounds pretty mundane, and worth not much more than a VCR.
But when they see it and have a chance to really play with it, ALL of them have been very surprised at how different it was from what they thought.
Was this really OBVIOUS in 1998? I remember hearing about it back then and thinking there was no way a computer (or set top computer) could record or watch a full screen stream of video without pausing hiccuping or generally having serious problems. Our computers in the last couple of years have been capable of replaying fullscreen NTSC video from file, but recording fullscreen NTSC video at the same time without dropping frames? Doubtful.
Its very easy to sit on the sidelines and snipe at what people have done. Everything is obvious in retrospect.
Slashdot Mirror
"Which carries more weight: the right of Apple to protect their trade secrets or the rights of journalists to protect their sources?"
Journalists.
Next question.
I know. I really hated the novelization of the Harry Potter movies.
Next to go will be the betty crocker mini-ovens, under the heading of aiding terrorist in cooking up explosives.
Sheesh.
They can take my mini-oven when they pry it from my cold dead hands.
But I heard that they might even be making a LIVE ACTION version of the Lord of the Rings! I heard Michael J. Fox would play Frodo!
Jesus, how can Slashdot be this far behind?
I think the alure of apple is to a large part the hardware. OSX is great, but what makes it great is that it works on the hardware solidly, because apple is in control of that.
If they released it to a general x86 environment, that edge is gone and they have to start doing the same crappy thing that MS does with trying to support every damn thing old and new made for x86 platform.
And they can't compete like that.
If they do decide to come out with x86 (maybe to gain some speed increases and take advantage of things like WINE), then they most likely will control the hardware again, making sure that OSX will only run on something with the correct bios. The overall cost of the system may come down, but would still not be competitive to other PCs.
Apple's current systems with OSX just work. I haven't had to fuss at all. Coming from tech background on the windows side, it took a while for me to realize that everything was already setup correctly. Was a bit frustrating at first, but eventually I learned to relax.
Heres a mac feature that I love. If you have a shortcut (or a data file) on your system and you move the application, the mac knows. No broken links or shortcuts. No missing data. Its great.
I've been noticing this for a while. Take a look at the Apple articles that hit the front page (not the ones that are in the Apple section only). They consistently get a higher number of comments than most of the other articles that I see.
I have a Mac and love it. I'm a switcher (though I switched before those commercials) because I wanted to work on FCP. I love every minute of mac.
I haven't been this excited about computers and computing in general for a long time.
Get the crack, come on board.
Now that is some good spam! Not only did you stop and read it (and even add emphasis), but you respammed all of us!
Wow! I'm impressed.
Yeah, Lucas is extremely consistent in these movies. For example, Episode II explains why R2 can fly.
Wait a minute....
Hmm. I think you're forgetting the Clie NR70, that not only has the thumb keyboard, but a swivel 320x480 color (65k) screen. It runs palm os 4.1.
Wait. Bad example.
Guess you didn't like Darth Wuggles then?
And this is where their understanding fails. If they are applying this only to Emails or other forms of internet communication where the the information is sent from the 'publisher' to individuals all over the world, then they have a point.
But in a general way, the Web is a fetch medium. I ask for info from your server which you supply. But I have to ask! My local browser has to request the information for it to be provided to me. Its more like me calling a long distance porn line from my home town than it is like a porn phone line setting up shop in the middle of town.
and that, they do not get at all.
"Dont mean to be a troll but this scares me. If commercials are made useless by this technology how will the networks make money?"
Product placement. You already see it happening in movies and now prominently in Survivor.
Like a gas, advertisers expand to fill the medium.
TIVO is as accurate as the information that the company received from... (I forget the name of the company that does the listings). The information is as up to date as your last successful call in.
So if ABC says Mahr is on at Midnight, that's what time TIVO records it. If they have an accurate time, then TIVO records that.
As far as special things like Buffy, yes it did know to record for an extra 10 minutes. It also knew that Jerimiah was going to be on 15 minutes late last week.
It knows that a show is pre-empted for a different show. It knows quite a lot -- a lot more than I'm willing to sit down and figure out on my own.
I don't know the All In Wonder's functionality, but if you're going to compare it to TIVO, you have to compare a lot more of the features.
Does the card allow you to record one show while watching another show that has already been recorded (without dropping frames)? Does it allow you to watch the show it is recording 15 minutes behind what its recording?
Is it always recording so that if I want to pause or rewind, I can. If after watching it for 20 minutes, I decide I'd like a to record it, is it able to record the entire show (including the 20 minutes I've just watched)?
If not, it aint a TIVO.
I can Vid cap right now to my hearts content. But that aint TIVO either. Because if it doesn't have all those wonderful extra features, whats the real difference between it and a VCR (with VCR+)?
What I think is funny is that you're not honoring your own blackout.
I guess the lure of getting one more word in is just too much to bear...
What's changed is that the suggestions now are getting information through the call. It indexes the suggestions sort of like Amazon's suggestions. It looks for other user's likes and dislikes. So if you like show X, tivo knows that 100 other people who liked show X like show Y but not show Z, and acts accordingly.
Look for this to get better and better with time.
But it does leave the option of trying to social engineer the suggestions. It also may leave a wide open gap for Tivo to make a suggestion of their own (which I think already happens).
I'm a beta tester, and since firebolt is out, I'm free to talk.
The broadcast is a way to load data through the tv instead of through the phone line. It allows (if it works) a way to get a bulk of data through broadcast and then the machine will only call for incremental data updates.
That is, if it works. Digital cable can mess up the signal, so the tivo tries to get the program from the analog portion of the channels. It does work over DirecTV, for most users.
Its nothing fancy yet, but a better way to help with the large costs of the phone services. If you can reduce your connect time for a majority of the machines, you save lots of money.
3.0 is nice. Not great, since its mostly a backend upgrade, but nice. Menus are much quicker and more responsive.
Backdoors are officially closed, but we'll see if they stay that way. The old passwords no longer work, and the new one is encrypted. But again, we'll see what happens in the next month or two.
I would maintain that you've missed the point of games. If it was true that in games "You are supposed to win by any means necessary," then I would posit that most games would be unplayable. If you took the field in Football and the other team's coach shoots you with a sniper rifle, that would be winning by any means necessary. Games have rules for a reason.
The example you brought up to support your point isn't valid. Even if we disregard that Matrix is a movie, not a game, the premise is closer to a war than a game. The war is between humans and the machines. Any means necessary can be more valid in a war setting than a game setting.
I would also say that you've completely missed the point of gaming. I can out ride a 3 year old, but it doesn't make it fun. Maybe you can take your obvious skills and pit them against other bot-makers and try to see how fun that might be. Which bot maker is the best, etc. Try it, you may have something that you've been missing -- real fun.
IANAL, or even close to one, but I'm not sure what insider abuse could be considered here, since this has nothing to do with investment, or insider trading.
Since the deal is between them, and they are suing each other, couldn't they agree to anything they want to agree to? Its not like they couldn't just sue MS right now with the patents that they have (unless they can't - ie MS doesn't infringe). So suing each other isn't underhanded in that way. It just gives them more legal weight behind their patents. It would discourage MS from contesting if the patents were already validated by the court system.
I dunno. I think its actually not the case. I think its business as usuall, but I like the theory presented by the person on AVS, so I put it out here.
Someone on the AVS Tivo board suggested that this may be a gambit by both TIVO and SonicBlue to validate their Patents.
When you think about it, it comes at an odd time (with TIVO being awarded more patents.) This person suggested that SonicBlue would sue TIVO over certain patents, TIVO would countersue, both would settle and cross-license and the patents in question would have precedent in the court system. Both could then turn on MS and demand licensing fees for the validated patents.
Hopefully something like that is happening.
I wonder if this would be considered as terrorism in Ashcroft's proposed law?
Actually, if MS did this, they would ensure that the breakup would indeed happen. After a couple of ineffective contempt rulings, the issue might be reconsidered under a contempt ruling and harsher penalties imposed.
One rule of the land, you never fsck with a judge.
I have a mac with this setup. Let me know of a macrovision protected title, and I'll try it myself and let you know.
>The only way to do this with a computer is to have two tuner cards and a TV out card because it says the ability to watch one program on your television while recording another on in MPEG format.
Not even that easy. With TIVO, you can watch the program you are currently recording as well. Jump to live, back to the beginning, whatever.
Do you have or have you used ReplayTV or TIVO?
Its not obvious as you think it would be. Without fail, when I describe my TIVO to people, they think it sounds pretty mundane, and worth not much more than a VCR.
But when they see it and have a chance to really play with it, ALL of them have been very surprised at how different it was from what they thought.
Was this really OBVIOUS in 1998? I remember hearing about it back then and thinking there was no way a computer (or set top computer) could record or watch a full screen stream of video without pausing hiccuping or generally having serious problems. Our computers in the last couple of years have been capable of replaying fullscreen NTSC video from file, but recording fullscreen NTSC video at the same time without dropping frames? Doubtful.
Its very easy to sit on the sidelines and snipe at what people have done. Everything is obvious in retrospect.