OK, I tried going that route, and I have to tell you, the UI on an ATI card is bad, even for ATI. First, you can't see the listings on a TV. The font they use is only 1 pixel wide at 800X600. I had to run NetMeeting on it and connect through my desktop to see the schedule (or set up another monitor). Then, you can't set up a season pass, search the listings, or create wish lists. It crashed a lot, and never seemed to get any better with software upgrades.
However, to be fair, the closed captioning capture is great.
That's what I was thinking. Besides, MS *never* throws out failed technology. Think Microsoft Bob morphing into Clippy, the Office Paperclip.
Most of Ultimate TV was based on all the work they put into the set-top box software they designed for General Instrument, but no cable operator wanted MS to get their hooks into their revenue stream. They dumped millions into that black hole, if for no other reason, to keep competition out. We'll see it come back again, as most people think, on the X-box.
Could they have made the article any harder to read? I'm running 1280X1024 on a 21" monitor... Makes the article very hard to read. Oh, maybe I'll make it bigger (view->text size-> larger). Nope. The designer knows how big the text should be. Don't touch it!:)
If you can pry the application out of the network protocol (i.e. IPv4), such that the application is independent of the underlying protocol (as it ought to be), then you could more easily use the apropriate protocol for the apropriate application when necessary.
You can also simplify spinning out the aplication from the network. The trend in Telecom these days is to divorce yourself from the expensive parts of your network that will "never" make money, and focus on the higher margin parts.
For example, AT&T no longer owns their towers. They lease them from American Tower, because they don't want to be in the tower business. They run and manage their network. Another example is cable television. The money isn't in running the local office, it is in running the channels.
I think that cellular companies are in the process of doing the same thing. They see themselves as service providers, not infrastructure players. After all, the network is just a big drain on their bottom line, and it will be better to get rid of all that and lease the network you want from someone else.
The problem with the early history of television is that RCA blurred the timeline in order to keep from having to license the patents. They finally did pay royalties to Farnsworth, but they held back launching television until after WWII, even though the technology was mass-producable before the stock market crash. Remember, RCA was run by (General) David Sarnoff, a guy who makes (chairman) Bill Gates look like Ralph Nader. Here is a guy who killed any technology that might change the status quo, even if the tech is clearly better (FM radio, for example was invented at RCA, but Sarnoff didn't want to have to change the product line). RCA made radios, transmitters, studio equipment, owned the 2 most popular radio networks, etc. If you wanted to do something with radio (at least in the US), you had to deal with RCA at some point.
If it weren't for the depression and the communications act of 1934, we'd still only have NBC (RCA) and CBS
Oh, and Edwin Armstrong, who invented FM, killed himself after Sarnoff ruined him.
Do you expect anyone in a huge company, who mostly uses the Internet for porn and ebay to understand why anyone would want to plug in a laptop? Verizon gets close. AT&T wants us to turn Japanese, Nextel wants us to be truckers, and Singlular... as far as I can tell, Singlular wants us to be gay.
The could deside to install filtering "for the children. Luckly, there are enough legal issues involved in filtering at the neighborhood level that the home owners association would likely just offer a filtering proxy as a service.. and (unfairly) make everyone pay for it.
Actually, no, there aren't really any rules concerning running a proxy (at least in the US). In fact, there aren't really any rules concerning anything in home owner associations, or the Internet, or FTTH.
It may not be fair, but home owner's associations do tend to have a lot of say in how your house looks and what you can and can't do. The usual answer is "take it or leave it." And, since you singned the contract when you moved in, that is usually just fine.
What needs to happen is a total decoupling of content and infrastructure. There is no reason for my ISP to provide me e-mail, news access, etc. It takes resources away from what they seem to want to do, which is to run a network, and they don't seem to do it very well, either. Yet, I use it and pay for it. If they would let me drop their e-mail and news access for a reduction in the monthly rate, I would find some other provider for these services (or, better yet, just set up my own server).
Exactly! What is needed is a MIX or NAP where all the utils can interconnect your fiber with their services.
What seems to be happening right now is either the first util to go in gets the market share, or the management group decides what is thought of as the best service (usually based mostly on price or sales pitch).
The only problem with a MIX is there is a good possibility that one service may have something you want, but some other service may have something else you want (IE: VOD on one network, really high quality data access on the other).
I realize that the article said that the seasick cam footage sells, but I would think that a camera in a tornado would not be able to capture anything viewable, unless you anchor it down to the ground. This would mean that one will need to know exactly where the tornado is. These guys need to take a page from the Hurricane hunter planes: come up with an R/C plane that has stabilation built in to handle the winds. THAT would get much better footage, IMHO.
I recently spent some time researching cyclometers, and came across these. Compared to what is out there from cateye and vetta, these just can't compare. The Palm devices are much larger and really don't check enough to be useful for real training. Cadence (pedal revs/min) and heart rate are essential for me, if for nothing else, to keep from getting bored. I use a GPS for the rest. I'm sure someday they'll have it right, and no one will be using dedicated cyclometers, but at this time, it is tough to beat one of the higher end cyclometers.
With wireless, you throw up an antenna and a power source, and go on about your business.
Umm, are you going to throw that antenna up with a sky hook? Last I read, antenna sites require real estate, zoning, schmoozing the planning commision, etc. Sure there are plenty of high places, but if you only have a KM worth of signal, you are going to need a lot of antennas to cover a town with any sort of realiability. Where are you going to put 'em? Power/telco poles? Are you ready to pay rent? How are you going to power 'em? Solar? Is the power company going to let you put solar cells on their poles?
For use in Cars? Typically, cars don't have much space to put things. This thing looks like it is just about the size of the current standard GM car computer (maybe a little thicker). Would make a great way to customize the engine response, give a HUD, control your entertainment system, etc.
Usually a new act signs a contract that forces them to use the record company's publisher. If the artist insists on using their own publishing company, the record company won't promote as much, making it very difficult to get an album out (or just won't sign them).
Another trick is to sign a 3 record contract that sucks to get your foot in the door, then negotiate a better deal on the renewal. Look to see what happens to Brittany Spears, now that she fulfilled her 3 album deal. If she gets a new contract, they'll give her the world on a platter (including her own publishing company), since she's huge right now. However, they'll also be working on the next Brittany at the same time. If her next album survives against the "neo-Brittany" the record companies are preparing right now, hey, great. Everybody wins. But, don't look for the massive Brittany wave of shamless promotion we've seen during this contract.
Recording companies take a huge monetary risk every time they sign someone.
No, they don't. These companies have revenue measured in the trillions of dollars. They are owned by international conglomerates that are looking for 15% growth every year. 1/2 a mil is no big deal to these companies, as long as they find artists who engage in the "same thing, only new" method of creative development.
Hollywood seems to have been taken over by the suits. They don't want to take a risk, because if they do, they won't see the 15% increase in year over year revenue that has become the norm for business these days.
What is needed is small, privately held companies fronting new artists. If the person putting the money up for the project actually has an intrest in the industry other than the sexyness factor, the train wreck that American media has become may have a chance of getting back to being the best entertainment in the world.
Frontline just aired a story about Hollywood and the film industry, but since they're the same companies in most cases, the story still applies. They weren't anywhere near as nice as the article about what has become of the modern studio. The only thing that they missed (as does the article), is that there is no reason with modern recording equipment it should cost 1/2 a mil for producing 10 songs, or a movie, and just what the heck all those lawyers are for!
One of the problems with a monopoly like the telcos (rate managed by gov) is that the only way to increase profit is to reduce cost. This leads to doing the bare minimum possible, but keeping the rate structure the same.
When the industry is de-regulated, all the competition gets to take advantage of your cost reduction. Since you've found other costs (such as layers of management and union representation) that justify your costs to the gov, you can't compete without a lot of pain and suffering.
There are still plenty of technological advances, but they never reach the end user. ATM is the only technology introduced in the last 10 years that anyone may know something about (thanks to DSL), but backbone design has changed dramatically - DWDM and optical switching will have no visible impact to the customer, but the telco and long distance companies will be able to futher reduce costs. Imagine multiple wavelengths of OC-768 running over 1 fiber (40Gbps!). That is the next big thing for most of the telcos. Will you see this option made available to the end customer (consumer or business)? Nope. I won't say never, but not any time soon.
Strangely, the only people who required a land line number were the cell phone people. Everyone else seems fine with "unlisted" or my cell, depending on who it is and if I want to give it out.
I had a Nortel phone that was designed for soho use that would announce the number (or name if programmed). That made it very easy, just listen.
It also had a generic message that you could play - "we are unable to take your call, please leave a message at the tone." in the voice of the phone company lady. Most of time, people thought there was a problem with my line. I'm sure that cut down on telemarketers, as well.
I did! I did! Dad bought it at a hamfest for $350. Got the computer and all the drawings, manuals and everything to make it work, but no teletype until a few years later. Sitting in storage now.
Great machine. Still remember making the lights blink.
I've found most people keep important files on floppy or zip, not understanding MTBF on a hard drive is so much higher than on floppy. Then they come to me and want me to pull the file off the trashed floppy.
Most people won't put anything on a hard drive, much less a network drive.
Slashdot Mirror
However, to be fair, the closed captioning capture is great.
Most of Ultimate TV was based on all the work they put into the set-top box software they designed for General Instrument, but no cable operator wanted MS to get their hooks into their revenue stream. They dumped millions into that black hole, if for no other reason, to keep competition out. We'll see it come back again, as most people think, on the X-box.
You can also simplify spinning out the aplication from the network. The trend in Telecom these days is to divorce yourself from the expensive parts of your network that will "never" make money, and focus on the higher margin parts.
For example, AT&T no longer owns their towers. They lease them from American Tower, because they don't want to be in the tower business. They run and manage their network. Another example is cable television. The money isn't in running the local office, it is in running the channels.
I think that cellular companies are in the process of doing the same thing. They see themselves as service providers, not infrastructure players. After all, the network is just a big drain on their bottom line, and it will be better to get rid of all that and lease the network you want from someone else.
If it weren't for the depression and the communications act of 1934, we'd still only have NBC (RCA) and CBS
Oh, and Edwin Armstrong, who invented FM, killed himself after Sarnoff ruined him.
Do you expect anyone in a huge company, who mostly uses the Internet for porn and ebay to understand why anyone would want to plug in a laptop? Verizon gets close. AT&T wants us to turn Japanese, Nextel wants us to be truckers, and Singlular... as far as I can tell, Singlular wants us to be gay.
Well, if you connect up a few of these to your GBIC ports, yes, it does replace T-3.
Actually, no, there aren't really any rules concerning running a proxy (at least in the US). In fact, there aren't really any rules concerning anything in home owner associations, or the Internet, or FTTH.
It may not be fair, but home owner's associations do tend to have a lot of say in how your house looks and what you can and can't do. The usual answer is "take it or leave it." And, since you singned the contract when you moved in, that is usually just fine.
What needs to happen is a total decoupling of content and infrastructure. There is no reason for my ISP to provide me e-mail, news access, etc. It takes resources away from what they seem to want to do, which is to run a network, and they don't seem to do it very well, either. Yet, I use it and pay for it. If they would let me drop their e-mail and news access for a reduction in the monthly rate, I would find some other provider for these services (or, better yet, just set up my own server).
What seems to be happening right now is either the first util to go in gets the market share, or the management group decides what is thought of as the best service (usually based mostly on price or sales pitch).
The only problem with a MIX is there is a good possibility that one service may have something you want, but some other service may have something else you want (IE: VOD on one network, really high quality data access on the other).
So does ol' gill on The Simpsons.
So, the RBOCs make money from telemarketeers, and then they make money blocking telemarketeers... I need to buy some Verizon stock.
Umm, are you going to throw that antenna up with a sky hook? Last I read, antenna sites require real estate, zoning, schmoozing the planning commision, etc. Sure there are plenty of high places, but if you only have a KM worth of signal, you are going to need a lot of antennas to cover a town with any sort of realiability. Where are you going to put 'em? Power/telco poles? Are you ready to pay rent? How are you going to power 'em? Solar? Is the power company going to let you put solar cells on their poles?
Just have to keep MS software off it!
Usually a new act signs a contract that forces them to use the record company's publisher. If the artist insists on using their own publishing company, the record company won't promote as much, making it very difficult to get an album out (or just won't sign them).
Another trick is to sign a 3 record contract that sucks to get your foot in the door, then negotiate a better deal on the renewal. Look to see what happens to Brittany Spears, now that she fulfilled her 3 album deal. If she gets a new contract, they'll give her the world on a platter (including her own publishing company), since she's huge right now. However, they'll also be working on the next Brittany at the same time. If her next album survives against the "neo-Brittany" the record companies are preparing right now, hey, great. Everybody wins. But, don't look for the massive Brittany wave of shamless promotion we've seen during this contract.
No, they don't. These companies have revenue measured in the trillions of dollars. They are owned by international conglomerates that are looking for 15% growth every year. 1/2 a mil is no big deal to these companies, as long as they find artists who engage in the "same thing, only new" method of creative development.
Hollywood seems to have been taken over by the suits. They don't want to take a risk, because if they do, they won't see the 15% increase in year over year revenue that has become the norm for business these days.
What is needed is small, privately held companies fronting new artists. If the person putting the money up for the project actually has an intrest in the industry other than the sexyness factor, the train wreck that American media has become may have a chance of getting back to being the best entertainment in the world.
Frontline just aired a story about Hollywood and the film industry, but since they're the same companies in most cases, the story still applies. They weren't anywhere near as nice as the article about what has become of the modern studio. The only thing that they missed (as does the article), is that there is no reason with modern recording equipment it should cost 1/2 a mil for producing 10 songs, or a movie, and just what the heck all those lawyers are for!
http://www.divatv.com/
These companies should be able to provide a solution. Big, fast VOD servers are no big deal anymore.
Actually, most of the interstate phone calls in the southeastern US run through a wire center in downtown Atlanta.
When the industry is de-regulated, all the competition gets to take advantage of your cost reduction. Since you've found other costs (such as layers of management and union representation) that justify your costs to the gov, you can't compete without a lot of pain and suffering.
There are still plenty of technological advances, but they never reach the end user. ATM is the only technology introduced in the last 10 years that anyone may know something about (thanks to DSL), but backbone design has changed dramatically - DWDM and optical switching will have no visible impact to the customer, but the telco and long distance companies will be able to futher reduce costs. Imagine multiple wavelengths of OC-768 running over 1 fiber (40Gbps!). That is the next big thing for most of the telcos. Will you see this option made available to the end customer (consumer or business)? Nope. I won't say never, but not any time soon.
It also had a generic message that you could play - "we are unable to take your call, please leave a message at the tone." in the voice of the phone company lady. Most of time, people thought there was a problem with my line. I'm sure that cut down on telemarketers, as well.
Great machine. Still remember making the lights blink.
Most people won't put anything on a hard drive, much less a network drive.