Having a need or a caprice means diddly squat to the planet. In the end it either affects things or it doesn't. Mr Gore might say all he wants about his "needs" but he contributes multitudes more pollution than me with my big bad SUV so frankly he, and those like him should kindly STHU.
Personally I couldn't care less if the GW is happening or not. I'm going to be here for maybe 40 more years and after that you can all kiss my sorry ass. This rock has been worming up and chilling for billions of years, and will continue doing so for billions more. If anything, steps could be taken to deal with it, not prevent it or slow it down, as IMHO, there is no way in hell we can do the latter even if we all decided to live like monkeys in a bush. Because you know, human kind is on a roll. We are moving throughout the solar system, now we're on earth. Explains why all those other planets around us are oh so fucking dead.
Linux is only "free" if your time is worth nothing and you have enough of it to spend learning how to do things you already knew how to do
I hate MS as much as the next guy, I really do but I can so relate to this statement. I have made several attempts to install and subsequently learn Linux, and while it is a nice novelty and a possible alternative, I'm sorry, I have no room for Linux in my home or office at this time.
I won't deny that XP is a bloated, convoluted and often finicky behemoth but the amount of software and supported hardware, really not much if anything even comes close in comparison. When one gets some nice shiny (and expensive) piece of hardware chances are, they'll have little problems running it on XP. Oh yes drivers might be missing and maybe the system will BSOD a couple of times but to me (and I suspect to a vast majority of Joe Publics) steps to be possibly taken a beaten path. From my own experience (YMMV), not so on Linux, and regrettably not so on Vista. Granted, over the years I've learned a lot about 2000/XP, the interface, system and its quirks are more than familiar to me whereas those of Linux and to a large extent Vista are not. When I first tried to troubleshoot a Vista machine I felt like I've never seen a computer in my life. Probably hardly OS' fault, but when you try to get someone to switch, the apparent question comes up. "Why?".
Case in point. My mom, who's now approaching 70, is by no means a computer proficient specimen. To her XP, Linux, Vista could as well be names of planets. She doesn't give two shits neither knows nor cares what they mean. As such it was kind of a no-brainer to set her up with a Linux distro on her new laptop because honestly, all she needs is a browser, email and maybe a word processor (so I thought). Quickly a problem appeared. She has a digital camera and in the old XP system she hooked it up, the camera prompted XP to install a whole bunch of useless crap, rebooted a gazillion times, made a mess out of the desktop and menu system but in the end, even she could handle transferring, viewing and emailing the pictures practically w/o anyone's help. Her new Linux environment did not install a bunch of useless apps, but it also had a huge problem with the camera and when I finally made it work after few long nights and told her what's the procedure, she politely, as only a mother can, told me to go fuck myself and just put whatever it was that she was running before. So we spent another $300 for an XP Pro and that same afternoon she loved me again.
I've tried to use Linux for my own purposes and it was pretty much a total a failure. I'm running a MythTV box in the LR but TBH, I see little if any operational advantage over XP MCE (not without its own problems of course). And it took me a little over an hour and a half to install MCE vs 3 days I needed to get the Myth box "working" which BTW till this day refuses to display a native to display 720 resolution. Not a major pain but seriously, WTF.
Vista is going thru the same hurdles as Linux in that XP is by now a very mature, very familiar and all things considered very well supported OS. And depending on one's definition of stability, pretty much rock-solid. I'm not an idiot, I can learn new clicks, commands or menu systems but again... "Why?". When it really offers not much more in terms of efficiency, speed or functionality to offset the major learning curve, I say piss off. Just so I can save few hundred bucks? Free doesn't appeal to me personally on the principal that it initially costs no money. I like free, I do. I have a lot of respect for Linux developers, want them to succeed and whenever possible support their efforts such as despite my continued apprehensions recommend and install Linux wherever it makes sense to do so and keep trying to learn more about and of it. But *free* is not always best (of course neither is ridiculously "expensive" as Vista clearly demonstrates). Free OO it may be but all in all I chose to let MS ass-rape me and
Instant replay was a VCR that was on site, not consumer controllable. Big difference
No difference. What does technology have to do with the market in which it exists other than catering to it.
Regardless. It's a bullshit patent. I've been doing that crap with VCR's years before TiVo albeit it was neither this pretty nor flexible. Digital format simply offers new advantages in terms of application, speed, and cost but to patent recording 2 programs at once or recording one and watching another? What kind of crap is that? It's not even an idea, it goddamn obvious.
Live TV has nothing to do with it, it is never live, it's a case of a AV feed source being digitally saved to a HDD, then opened and - in this case - played back. All a DVR does is access stored files from different processes. My computer does this all the time. It is doing it right now. What will they claim next, that they invented shared file access?
That is very true indeed. But then this is true of every situation in life and for every child that got hurt there are 1000's that did/do not. Loosing a child or it getting seriously hurt is tragic and I would not wish it upon any parent but let's face it, kids still get abducted, they still get hurt, they still actually do stupid shit. Our overbearing society fixed none of that with our protectionism. All the what ifs, holy shits and oh my gods. I tell you, stop ever watching news at 11 and your life will suddenly become a lot safer.
To be completely honest, I'm not a parent and I am seriously petrified of becoming one. On one hand I would like my child to have the kind of childhood I did with all it wonderful - now seen as forbidden - activities. But I would most likely be the same stupid, overprotective drone the rest of the society is.
I walked ~1 mile to and from school every day since I was 7. No there were no big bad SUV's and cell phones to blame for all that's bad with the world today, but the street outside was a dangerous and deadly place no less. The first thing my mom taught me of the world outside our yard was how to cross it safely and what to do if this or that happens. Would I do the same for my child? I'd like to think so but most likely what I'd teach him or her would be to never, ever, under any circumstances cross the street without the parent because they will surely die. I'd probably stretch it to "an adult" but that's as far as I'd go.
Not to mention the state and everyone else sticking their fucking fingers into every aspect of parenting. Yea, if I was a kid today and pulled the same "stunts" my folks would be in jail and I would be finally enjoying my life going from one screwed up foster family to another. Oh joy!
The parents should really get most of the blame for their kids, be it obesity or anything else but really, personally I think that as much as it is harder for kids to be kids these days, the same goes for parenting. Kids may not benefit from abuse but they do need good authority and unfortunately it seems the parents have less and less of it each day. State and neighbors like to point things out and stick their fingers where they don't belong because they always know better but our collective solution to the problem is really the root of the problem itself.
That's because those are not really performance SSD drives. Random Access time is much improved but the transfer rate is way below a good HD. MTron has some high performance drives that pulverize everything else but they do cost an arm, leg and probably one of your kidneys. The only real benefits of those Samsung SSD's are much lower power consumption, no heat or noise. On a laptop this is still very good news.
Then TFA is dead wrong. I never choose to use windowsupdate.microsoft.com (yes TIA for the concern over my machine's wellbeing, it is doing fine), AU is Off in CP, AU service is Disabled, and yet my files did get patched. No I did not coincidentally, with many others visit MS site on 8/24 (date of mod on said files and folders as it appears in others). I don't care that the update is not malicious, stay the fuck away from my machine as I asked. It works just the way I like and need it, and I need it to work. Today it is updates to WU, tomorrow, they may just decide, they don't like certain things running, because they said so. Seriously, let that Linux shit get sorted out soon, free or otherwise, so that important win-only apps can be written to run on it. I really cannot wait to ditch those stupid MS assholes once and for good.
Maybe. Artificial carrier, format etc locking was always baffling to me. I guess it could be viewed as a customer retention mechanism whereby you expensive toys don't work somewhere else but to me it was always like shooting yourself in a foot and the customer in the ass. I recall countless times when I was nagged to switch cell providers, and though sometimes features or SQ were arguably better or maybe cheaper, but since I cannot use the equipment I have and like, well go F yourselves then. Good for my current provider I suppose, but "current" is a relative term, or should be. I'd like to try Dish instead of DirectTV but likely won't cause there's hell to spend on equipment that does exactly the same. Good for DirecTV cause Dish would have to offer me one helluva deal to bite. But it could be bad for DTV because once I do bite, I will likely never bite "back" again. I love music, I have plenty of disposable income for tunes and such, but I will never subscribe to the iTMS model. Sorry, no sale.
The story is similar in many more areas where a DRM in one form or another not only does not enhance customer experience but also is potentially hurting the company hell bent on DRM-ing their crap. It is an escape door for not winning customers with superior, quality services but rather making them stay despite the contrary. I realize that there is a difference between an imposed DRM and a de facto DRM brought on about by the objectively technical issues of the device, but more often than not it is done just because somebody said so.
Any form of DRM imposed on a customer under the guise of a benefit is a total and utter bullshit. It is a contradiction to the concept of free market economy, capitalism and their benefits to customers and businesses alike. It is in fact best likened to the countries of the former Soviet block, whereby the citizens were granted their lives under a "DRM" and could enjoy all the benefits of communism. Bound by the "DMCA" were legally forbidden from format hopping over the Wall, but with all those great benefits, who'd ever want to? Yeah, that worked out well for everybody.
I think there is a slight difference. First those scanners are on store's property which you willingly visit. Not at your house to detect whether, at some point, you did bring some "stolen" property of said store, or require a technician to drop by your crib every now and then to check if that $300 fridge you bought is legit and tell you that no, despite of what you might think, you cannot have this fridge sitting in your living room. Second, as far as consumers can tell, those devices do not (yet) scan your driver's license or credit card numbers as you pass by. When they do you can bet your ass people will start objecting.
I think a more appropriate comparison would be store clerks and security officers standing at the exit door and checking your bags and receipts as you leave. I don't know about other places but in New York City this is rampant, and to me indeed unacceptable. I stopped shopping in several stores that partake in that practice, though not before getting into several occassions of aruguments with said clerks after I had decided to ignore those twats. I also saw notable number of places drop the policy because apparently it was either a) not working b) they were loosing money c) too many people went the F.U. route or d) all of the above.
Few years ago while visiting one of NY's biggest photo equipment retailer I was asked to surrender my backpack. Refused, turned around, went shopping elsewhere and sent the store manager a copy of my $10k+ receipt and why the other guy got it instead of them. I even got a letter back which made for some funny reading. Point is, that though I think people and businesses should be allowed to protect their property and goods or services they provide. Unfortunately things are getting out of hand and "Customer Service" or "Customer is always right" are now Urban Legends. In whatever small amounts, consumers should voice their opinions and vote with their wallet any time they get a chance to do so. Yes, even to those scanners at the door.
I've never found the Windows Activation preventing me from doing anything that I needed, but I don't like it just the same and really have better things to do than waste time explaining myslelf to some MS operator so that he may gaciously provide me with the coveted activation number. No thanks. And so the computers which I do not use for my windows based develoment for work are all running linux now. I like windows better, I think it looks better, I think it works better and I gladly pay for it. And yet, in this household it is now outnumberd by 4:1. Yup, my lone MS Office XP copy is next on the chopping block. I know it's not much of a statement, but as opposed to "supposed" piracy losses, this one is very much real, and an unnecessary one, too.
- Netptune-Sized-Planet-Minister-Dude: Oh Great One, the Eartlings have discovered our existance
- Great One: Earthlings?
- NSPMD: Yes oh Great One. It's a Mars-size plantet nearby, about 12.64 sextilion Volkswagens away.
- GO: So, what of it? Big deal. Are they friendly beings?
- NSPMD: Well Great One that's the problem. We've been spying on them for years, reading their books, watching their moving pictures, and listening to their sounds and rhythms.
- GO: I see. Oh well, let them bring their angry missiles and soldiers. We'll give them a whooping.
- NSPMD: It's worse Sir.
- GO: Worse?
- NSPMD: Yes Sir
- GO: How so?
- NSPMD: According to our calculations, we'll be sued by RIAA within the next 41 years
No kidding. If there is one thing I do hate about my DirecTiVo box is that every other night it decides to conviniently change a channel for me and record an exciting infomercial. If I happen to be time shifting live TV and don't catch that damn "we'll change a channel, ok?", bang, there goes my program.
At this point I'm not sure if TiVo is whoring itself out or is actually attempting to make sense of the digital age hurdles (and few $$$ in the process). The fact is ( at least in my household ) no TiVo = no TV, period. I'll be the first to admit I vigorously skip thru every commercial, I don't give a crap how funny, informative or elaborate it is. I'm sick of them. This is not to say I cannot appreciate creativity or see a value of being informed of something someone might have to offer, but there is just one problem with commercials on TV - there is way too damn many of them. The popularity of DVR's, commercial free (ok mostly) sat-radio and an associated drop in advertising effectiveness is a clear sign of consummer finally saying "Kiss My Ass".
But then, that's nothing new. Advertisers and TV execs know full well people in general hate commercials and if given opportunity, they'll skip'em, change channel, go to the fridge etc. So to combat the issue their answer is volume and frequency. One of those times you're bound to catch the sucker off guard. And so every 6-7 min or so we have the same f&^%$ing spots over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over... and over. Makes me wanna puke! Not only we have far too frequent commercial brakes that totally ruin TV watching experience and make people wanna strangle small animals, beginning and endings of programs are cut up for channel promos, and most annoying of them all, in-program woosh-zaaap-bang-click-tada! "Watch this reality show on Tuesday" woosh-zaap-bing-click. This, not even TiVo can help. Oh well, somebody's got to pay for the programms I get to watch for free right? I'm sorry I don't buy it. Actually I do "buy" it. I shell out ~$90 each and every month so that I can have this "free" TV. Divvy it up. To the next executive who gets out of his Bentley and cries "It costs money to run a TV network" - eat shit and die you gready f%#$ing bastard.
Advertising will be with us as long as there is business around but the model must change. I'm sure advertisers would happily sue everyone who changes a channel or takes a bathroom break if it was remotely possible (cause that's the American way), and forcing people to watch their crap by way of restrictive technology and law is a short term band-aid and a long term suicide. Advertising needs to reinvent itself and find a new way to effectively reach consumers without alienating them in the process. I would actually welcome thumbs up/down idea someone mentioned earlier. Although, I feel my Thumbs Down button would be seriously overused. I also hope sat tv people monitor what programs I am watching in hopes that more importantly they monitor what programs I choose NOT to watch. Which actually could explain why some crap shopping channels, though previously and constantly deleted - mysteriously reappear in my channel lineup ever so often. So reluctantly, maybe TiVo is onto something. Or maybe they just smell some green and it will make matters even worse still.
On the subject of synthetic females. I lived in Poland back in the 80's (time of a gov't imposed martial law and general civil unrest) and every time you picked up the phone, well there was that syn female "This call will be monitored. This call will be monitored, This...". That was the new dial tone. And they did monitor them too. For quite a few years. For a long while you could not even call abroad and our letters and packages, dometic and definitely otheriwse, more often than not arrived re-sealed with a big "CENSORED" stamp on them. That activity too was labeled as "protecting the country".
Honestly, I never dreamt that I'd be brought back to those scary, communist days. In the US of all places.
Though there are some desktop management features I wish I could have, I must say my 3 monitor display was a no brainer to set up and works like it should.
Re:I Think This Can Be Summed Up In Five Words
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Life or Death for Tivo
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I've had TiVo since it first showed up and was sold at ridiculous price. Upgraded to DirecTiVo when it became available for the increased recording quality. Since then, I'm sorry, no new TiVo box for me if only for the reasons listed in parent.
To me TiVo is now falling victim to its own stupidity which is locking themselves up with DirecTV instead of trying to simply standardize their "invention" same as DVD and VCR before it. I like the product but I feel no sympathy for TiVo, may they die a rotten death. Which is in fact a pity because if it wasn't for TiVo's time-shifting and my now old box's ability to do a 30-sec skip, I would pretty much toss my TV out the window. But TiVo has done absolutely nothing in recent years to make itself better. Features are being removed to please content providers and software is a pathetic nagware. So instead of buying (can you still?) a new TiVo box or other Sat DVR now, my next project is making my own HTPC with DVR, the way I like it. Yes it will end up much more expensive and due to double compressions, PQ may come down a bit, but I'm tired of the current out-the-box, fuck-the-customer products. TiVo should have simply concentrated on providing a DVR solution that could be implemented by anyone from OEM to Joe Sixpack on his HTPC. License the technology and watch the money flow. Instead a crop of other such solutions pops up and TiVo is left crying like an old whore that no one finds attractive anymore.
In attempts to generate revolving door of revenue, TiVo and others like them try to come up with some locked down standards that although (initially) cool, innovative and desireable, ultimately are doomed to failure. People may buy in and stay even for a pretty long while (partly because of original invenstment and/or lack of alternatives), but when they finally leave, they leave for good. Others may well infringe on TiVo's ideas, they may even have a case against EchoStar, but I hope they lose (too bad it would mean ES win but oh well). All these morons file IP lawsuits in recent years simply to generate some revenue which is dwindling or non-existent even due to their own greed and ineptitude.
Diversification works not only for consumers, it does work for providers and manufacturers, TOO! Get with the program.
I am so fed up with entertainment business. I don't mind spending my money on things I like and someone can provide but the whole thing is retarded, and getting more retarded still. I don't believe MPAA, RIAA, studios, labels and the bunch are morons and thinnk that somehow, by introducing all the restrictions they'll eradicate piracy and stand to make significant profit, if bigger profit at all due to that fact. It is all about control and someone going "Because I said so and you little shitheads bow down to me!" Recently there was this thing with French having a problem with iTunes and locking into iPod, and I don't particualrly care for the French but you know what? They're right. Wanna provide content and sell songs? Fine, but don't limit people to some specific equipment. Otherwise, kindly fuck off! Chevys are not required to fill up at a special GM gas station, how are songs or movies any different? They're not.
I can't have simply a satellite receiver, oh no, I need to have a CrapTV receiver and if for some reason I'd like to switch or buy some "other" programming, well receiver goes to the trash. What is the goddamned deal here? Same with the cell phones, cable tv, sat radio and few other things. I really cannot fathom how can equipment manufacturers even go for this crap? It is almost unimaginable that we have somehow managed to build a universally accessible Internet. Someone must have had a brain fart and forgot to grease our public servants.
Back in the day I truly enjoyed my first TiVo. Awesome product and what a concept. Add a dash of DirecTV and one ends up with TiShit. The thing changes channels on its own to record infomercials, convininently and regularly reorganinzes my channel list to include removed by me shopping channels, bitches constantly about not being able to call home and a host of other annoying things. AND to top it all off we're being charged $5 or so a month for a DVR SERVICE. What fucking service!? I bought the damn thing for top dollars, it's a computer with a hard drive and all it does is record what I tell it to. What service!? That whole DRM shit is really no surprise and will likely go the same way. We enjoyed having pricey but no less standardized CD's and DVD's for a long while but the end is near. We'll end up with yet another "service". Wanna listen at home? Here you go. Wanna listen in your car? Sure, you'll need to pay more for this additional, exciting "service". Wanna listen to some other record label? Well you'll need a whole new equipment for that. Actually it's already here in the form of sat radio. It's not about piracy at all. Frankly those who'd even consider watching a video-recorded movie are pathetic losers who have no appreciacion for film, any film and will not spend real money on it anyway. Pirates will do whatever they do and no crappy DRM will stop them just like all the software activations and cable/sat scrambling haven't done a thing but to annoy and limit an already and duly paying customer. Actually it may as well increase the demand for pirated media not because it's cheaper or free, but because you'll be actually able to listen to it, watch it or use it. It is not about providing customers with content, it's about controlling what you do and selling sub-content. Commercials on TV don't work cause everyone hates them so they need to sell shit some other way. They'd be glad to precede every song on a CD with an "information from our sponsor" and to ensure sponsor's happy, it'd be neat if they could guarrantee that the customer will definitely listen to the promo - cause he's got no say in the matter. Yea, he paid for the CD, who gives a shit, we can make more money this way. It also be cool if we somehow made it a law prohibiting turning down the volume for the promo's duration. Many DVD's already have that great feature and one must sit thru several minutes of stupid - ehem pardon me, "exciting" previews before they get to watch a movie that they paid for. They're so exciting they have to make us watch it, to watch it. Some media
Most interesting stuff. I was glad to see "Stanley" win. The "Highlander" and "Sandstorm" obviously had a lot of tech in them but "Stan" was clearily more reflective of the challange's merit - create a robot that can make decisions. The Red team crammed their vehicles with so much data it was like programming a production line robot. Yeah, it was a robot and a damn impressive one at that, but "Stan" could and had to actually decide things - and it did too. The idea of the laser + video overlay was most brilliant.
While watching the program I could not help but been thrown back to those 80's films where the underdogs try to save some place against a heavy muscle of well oiled, militarily organized, and funded up the wazoo industrial juggernaut. Not trying to put down the Red team, obviously a brilliant bunch, but the VW was way [i]brilliant-er[/i].
I do in principle support the TV license, because the BBC (especially the Radio - World Service + Radio 3,4) is extremely good. However, I think that the TV license is a bad way to do it
If you think a TV license is bad try putting up with 4 minutes of commercials every 6-7 minutes of programming. Here in the good ol' US of A we may not be forced to pay blanket TV tax (they just hide it under "other" on our cable or sat bills) but then our TV - sans PBS and premium movie channels - is a completely unwatchable shit. Olympics on NBC anyone? There's no free lunch, and that's fine, but at least for your ~$200/yr you get something. Granted the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, taxes always hurt cause most see them as unfair and at least 50% will indeed be correct, but....the alternative is really no better if much worse.
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Marijuana's bad, m'kay
Having a need or a caprice means diddly squat to the planet. In the end it either affects things or it doesn't. Mr Gore might say all he wants about his "needs" but he contributes multitudes more pollution than me with my big bad SUV so frankly he, and those like him should kindly STHU.
Personally I couldn't care less if the GW is happening or not. I'm going to be here for maybe 40 more years and after that you can all kiss my sorry ass. This rock has been worming up and chilling for billions of years, and will continue doing so for billions more. If anything, steps could be taken to deal with it, not prevent it or slow it down, as IMHO, there is no way in hell we can do the latter even if we all decided to live like monkeys in a bush. Because you know, human kind is on a roll. We are moving throughout the solar system, now we're on earth. Explains why all those other planets around us are oh so fucking dead.
Linux is only "free" if your time is worth nothing and you have enough of it to spend learning how to do things you already knew how to do
I hate MS as much as the next guy, I really do but I can so relate to this statement. I have made several attempts to install and subsequently learn Linux, and while it is a nice novelty and a possible alternative, I'm sorry, I have no room for Linux in my home or office at this time.
I won't deny that XP is a bloated, convoluted and often finicky behemoth but the amount of software and supported hardware, really not much if anything even comes close in comparison. When one gets some nice shiny (and expensive) piece of hardware chances are, they'll have little problems running it on XP. Oh yes drivers might be missing and maybe the system will BSOD a couple of times but to me (and I suspect to a vast majority of Joe Publics) steps to be possibly taken a beaten path. From my own experience (YMMV), not so on Linux, and regrettably not so on Vista. Granted, over the years I've learned a lot about 2000/XP, the interface, system and its quirks are more than familiar to me whereas those of Linux and to a large extent Vista are not. When I first tried to troubleshoot a Vista machine I felt like I've never seen a computer in my life. Probably hardly OS' fault, but when you try to get someone to switch, the apparent question comes up. "Why?".
Case in point. My mom, who's now approaching 70, is by no means a computer proficient specimen. To her XP, Linux, Vista could as well be names of planets. She doesn't give two shits neither knows nor cares what they mean. As such it was kind of a no-brainer to set her up with a Linux distro on her new laptop because honestly, all she needs is a browser, email and maybe a word processor (so I thought). Quickly a problem appeared. She has a digital camera and in the old XP system she hooked it up, the camera prompted XP to install a whole bunch of useless crap, rebooted a gazillion times, made a mess out of the desktop and menu system but in the end, even she could handle transferring, viewing and emailing the pictures practically w/o anyone's help. Her new Linux environment did not install a bunch of useless apps, but it also had a huge problem with the camera and when I finally made it work after few long nights and told her what's the procedure, she politely, as only a mother can, told me to go fuck myself and just put whatever it was that she was running before. So we spent another $300 for an XP Pro and that same afternoon she loved me again.
I've tried to use Linux for my own purposes and it was pretty much a total a failure. I'm running a MythTV box in the LR but TBH, I see little if any operational advantage over XP MCE (not without its own problems of course). And it took me a little over an hour and a half to install MCE vs 3 days I needed to get the Myth box "working" which BTW till this day refuses to display a native to display 720 resolution. Not a major pain but seriously, WTF.
Vista is going thru the same hurdles as Linux in that XP is by now a very mature, very familiar and all things considered very well supported OS. And depending on one's definition of stability, pretty much rock-solid. I'm not an idiot, I can learn new clicks, commands or menu systems but again ... "Why?". When it really offers not much more in terms of efficiency, speed or functionality to offset the major learning curve, I say piss off. Just so I can save few hundred bucks? Free doesn't appeal to me personally on the principal that it initially costs no money. I like free, I do. I have a lot of respect for Linux developers, want them to succeed and whenever possible support their efforts such as despite my continued apprehensions recommend and install Linux wherever it makes sense to do so and keep trying to learn more about and of it. But *free* is not always best (of course neither is ridiculously "expensive" as Vista clearly demonstrates). Free OO it may be but all in all I chose to let MS ass-rape me and
No difference. What does technology have to do with the market in which it exists other than catering to it.
Regardless. It's a bullshit patent. I've been doing that crap with VCR's years before TiVo albeit it was neither this pretty nor flexible. Digital format simply offers new advantages in terms of application, speed, and cost but to patent recording 2 programs at once or recording one and watching another? What kind of crap is that? It's not even an idea, it goddamn obvious.
Live TV has nothing to do with it, it is never live, it's a case of a AV feed source being digitally saved to a HDD, then opened and - in this case - played back. All a DVR does is access stored files from different processes. My computer does this all the time. It is doing it right now. What will they claim next, that they invented shared file access?
That is very true indeed. But then this is true of every situation in life and for every child that got hurt there are 1000's that did/do not. Loosing a child or it getting seriously hurt is tragic and I would not wish it upon any parent but let's face it, kids still get abducted, they still get hurt, they still actually do stupid shit. Our overbearing society fixed none of that with our protectionism. All the what ifs, holy shits and oh my gods. I tell you, stop ever watching news at 11 and your life will suddenly become a lot safer.
To be completely honest, I'm not a parent and I am seriously petrified of becoming one. On one hand I would like my child to have the kind of childhood I did with all it wonderful - now seen as forbidden - activities. But I would most likely be the same stupid, overprotective drone the rest of the society is.
I walked ~1 mile to and from school every day since I was 7. No there were no big bad SUV's and cell phones to blame for all that's bad with the world today, but the street outside was a dangerous and deadly place no less. The first thing my mom taught me of the world outside our yard was how to cross it safely and what to do if this or that happens. Would I do the same for my child? I'd like to think so but most likely what I'd teach him or her would be to never, ever, under any circumstances cross the street without the parent because they will surely die. I'd probably stretch it to "an adult" but that's as far as I'd go.
Not to mention the state and everyone else sticking their fucking fingers into every aspect of parenting. Yea, if I was a kid today and pulled the same "stunts" my folks would be in jail and I would be finally enjoying my life going from one screwed up foster family to another. Oh joy!
The parents should really get most of the blame for their kids, be it obesity or anything else but really, personally I think that as much as it is harder for kids to be kids these days, the same goes for parenting. Kids may not benefit from abuse but they do need good authority and unfortunately it seems the parents have less and less of it each day. State and neighbors like to point things out and stick their fingers where they don't belong because they always know better but our collective solution to the problem is really the root of the problem itself.
JMHO of course.
That's because those are not really performance SSD drives. Random Access time is much improved but the transfer rate is way below a good HD. MTron has some high performance drives that pulverize everything else but they do cost an arm, leg and probably one of your kidneys. The only real benefits of those Samsung SSD's are much lower power consumption, no heat or noise. On a laptop this is still very good news.
Then TFA is dead wrong. I never choose to use windowsupdate.microsoft.com (yes TIA for the concern over my machine's wellbeing, it is doing fine), AU is Off in CP, AU service is Disabled, and yet my files did get patched. No I did not coincidentally, with many others visit MS site on 8/24 (date of mod on said files and folders as it appears in others). I don't care that the update is not malicious, stay the fuck away from my machine as I asked. It works just the way I like and need it, and I need it to work. Today it is updates to WU, tomorrow, they may just decide, they don't like certain things running, because they said so. Seriously, let that Linux shit get sorted out soon, free or otherwise, so that important win-only apps can be written to run on it. I really cannot wait to ditch those stupid MS assholes once and for good.
No, but it does come with a free offer for a $10-Off coupon for Vista Ultimate demo disk.
Maybe. Artificial carrier, format etc locking was always baffling to me. I guess it could be viewed as a customer retention mechanism whereby you expensive toys don't work somewhere else but to me it was always like shooting yourself in a foot and the customer in the ass. I recall countless times when I was nagged to switch cell providers, and though sometimes features or SQ were arguably better or maybe cheaper, but since I cannot use the equipment I have and like, well go F yourselves then. Good for my current provider I suppose, but "current" is a relative term, or should be. I'd like to try Dish instead of DirectTV but likely won't cause there's hell to spend on equipment that does exactly the same. Good for DirecTV cause Dish would have to offer me one helluva deal to bite. But it could be bad for DTV because once I do bite, I will likely never bite "back" again. I love music, I have plenty of disposable income for tunes and such, but I will never subscribe to the iTMS model. Sorry, no sale.
The story is similar in many more areas where a DRM in one form or another not only does not enhance customer experience but also is potentially hurting the company hell bent on DRM-ing their crap. It is an escape door for not winning customers with superior, quality services but rather making them stay despite the contrary. I realize that there is a difference between an imposed DRM and a de facto DRM brought on about by the objectively technical issues of the device, but more often than not it is done just because somebody said so.
Any form of DRM imposed on a customer under the guise of a benefit is a total and utter bullshit. It is a contradiction to the concept of free market economy, capitalism and their benefits to customers and businesses alike. It is in fact best likened to the countries of the former Soviet block, whereby the citizens were granted their lives under a "DRM" and could enjoy all the benefits of communism. Bound by the "DMCA" were legally forbidden from format hopping over the Wall, but with all those great benefits, who'd ever want to? Yeah, that worked out well for everybody.
Bullshit. Complete bullshit.
The Pirate: Click. Done.
I think there is a slight difference. First those scanners are on store's property which you willingly visit. Not at your house to detect whether, at some point, you did bring some "stolen" property of said store, or require a technician to drop by your crib every now and then to check if that $300 fridge you bought is legit and tell you that no, despite of what you might think, you cannot have this fridge sitting in your living room. Second, as far as consumers can tell, those devices do not (yet) scan your driver's license or credit card numbers as you pass by. When they do you can bet your ass people will start objecting.
I think a more appropriate comparison would be store clerks and security officers standing at the exit door and checking your bags and receipts as you leave. I don't know about other places but in New York City this is rampant, and to me indeed unacceptable. I stopped shopping in several stores that partake in that practice, though not before getting into several occassions of aruguments with said clerks after I had decided to ignore those twats. I also saw notable number of places drop the policy because apparently it was either a) not working b) they were loosing money c) too many people went the F.U. route or d) all of the above.
Few years ago while visiting one of NY's biggest photo equipment retailer I was asked to surrender my backpack. Refused, turned around, went shopping elsewhere and sent the store manager a copy of my $10k+ receipt and why the other guy got it instead of them. I even got a letter back which made for some funny reading. Point is, that though I think people and businesses should be allowed to protect their property and goods or services they provide. Unfortunately things are getting out of hand and "Customer Service" or "Customer is always right" are now Urban Legends. In whatever small amounts, consumers should voice their opinions and vote with their wallet any time they get a chance to do so. Yes, even to those scanners at the door.
I've never found the Windows Activation preventing me from doing anything that I needed, but I don't like it just the same and really have better things to do than waste time explaining myslelf to some MS operator so that he may gaciously provide me with the coveted activation number. No thanks. And so the computers which I do not use for my windows based develoment for work are all running linux now. I like windows better, I think it looks better, I think it works better and I gladly pay for it. And yet, in this household it is now outnumberd by 4:1. Yup, my lone MS Office XP copy is next on the chopping block. I know it's not much of a statement, but as opposed to "supposed" piracy losses, this one is very much real, and an unnecessary one, too.
- Netptune-Sized-Planet-Minister-Dude: Oh Great One, the Eartlings have discovered our existance
- Great One: Earthlings?
- NSPMD: Yes oh Great One. It's a Mars-size plantet nearby, about 12.64 sextilion Volkswagens away.
- GO: So, what of it? Big deal. Are they friendly beings?
- NSPMD: Well Great One that's the problem. We've been spying on them for years, reading their books, watching their moving pictures, and listening to their sounds and rhythms.
- GO: I see. Oh well, let them bring their angry missiles and soldiers. We'll give them a whooping.
- NSPMD: It's worse Sir.
- GO: Worse?
- NSPMD: Yes Sir
- GO: How so?
- NSPMD: According to our calculations, we'll be sued by RIAA within the next 41 years
- GO: Oh crap
Right. And when Bill Gates finally gets rich, we'll all get a free copy of Windows.
No kidding. If there is one thing I do hate about my DirecTiVo box is that every other night it decides to conviniently change a channel for me and record an exciting infomercial. If I happen to be time shifting live TV and don't catch that damn "we'll change a channel, ok?", bang, there goes my program.
But then, that's nothing new. Advertisers and TV execs know full well people in general hate commercials and if given opportunity, they'll skip'em, change channel, go to the fridge etc. So to combat the issue their answer is volume and frequency. One of those times you're bound to catch the sucker off guard. And so every 6-7 min or so we have the same f&^%$ing spots over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over... and over. Makes me wanna puke! Not only we have far too frequent commercial brakes that totally ruin TV watching experience and make people wanna strangle small animals, beginning and endings of programs are cut up for channel promos, and most annoying of them all, in-program woosh-zaaap-bang-click-tada! "Watch this reality show on Tuesday" woosh-zaap-bing-click. This, not even TiVo can help. Oh well, somebody's got to pay for the programms I get to watch for free right? I'm sorry I don't buy it. Actually I do "buy" it. I shell out ~$90 each and every month so that I can have this "free" TV. Divvy it up. To the next executive who gets out of his Bentley and cries "It costs money to run a TV network" - eat shit and die you gready f%#$ing bastard.
Advertising will be with us as long as there is business around but the model must change. I'm sure advertisers would happily sue everyone who changes a channel or takes a bathroom break if it was remotely possible (cause that's the American way), and forcing people to watch their crap by way of restrictive technology and law is a short term band-aid and a long term suicide. Advertising needs to reinvent itself and find a new way to effectively reach consumers without alienating them in the process. I would actually welcome thumbs up/down idea someone mentioned earlier. Although, I feel my Thumbs Down button would be seriously overused. I also hope sat tv people monitor what programs I am watching in hopes that more importantly they monitor what programs I choose NOT to watch. Which actually could explain why some crap shopping channels, though previously and constantly deleted - mysteriously reappear in my channel lineup ever so often. So reluctantly, maybe TiVo is onto something. Or maybe they just smell some green and it will make matters even worse still.
Honestly, I never dreamt that I'd be brought back to those scary, communist days. In the US of all places.
Though there are some desktop management features I wish I could have, I must say my 3 monitor display was a no brainer to set up and works like it should.
To me TiVo is now falling victim to its own stupidity which is locking themselves up with DirecTV instead of trying to simply standardize their "invention" same as DVD and VCR before it. I like the product but I feel no sympathy for TiVo, may they die a rotten death. Which is in fact a pity because if it wasn't for TiVo's time-shifting and my now old box's ability to do a 30-sec skip, I would pretty much toss my TV out the window. But TiVo has done absolutely nothing in recent years to make itself better. Features are being removed to please content providers and software is a pathetic nagware. So instead of buying (can you still?) a new TiVo box or other Sat DVR now, my next project is making my own HTPC with DVR, the way I like it. Yes it will end up much more expensive and due to double compressions, PQ may come down a bit, but I'm tired of the current out-the-box, fuck-the-customer products. TiVo should have simply concentrated on providing a DVR solution that could be implemented by anyone from OEM to Joe Sixpack on his HTPC. License the technology and watch the money flow. Instead a crop of other such solutions pops up and TiVo is left crying like an old whore that no one finds attractive anymore.
In attempts to generate revolving door of revenue, TiVo and others like them try to come up with some locked down standards that although (initially) cool, innovative and desireable, ultimately are doomed to failure. People may buy in and stay even for a pretty long while (partly because of original invenstment and/or lack of alternatives), but when they finally leave, they leave for good. Others may well infringe on TiVo's ideas, they may even have a case against EchoStar, but I hope they lose (too bad it would mean ES win but oh well). All these morons file IP lawsuits in recent years simply to generate some revenue which is dwindling or non-existent even due to their own greed and ineptitude.
Diversification works not only for consumers, it does work for providers and manufacturers, TOO! Get with the program.
I can't have simply a satellite receiver, oh no, I need to have a CrapTV receiver and if for some reason I'd like to switch or buy some "other" programming, well receiver goes to the trash. What is the goddamned deal here? Same with the cell phones, cable tv, sat radio and few other things. I really cannot fathom how can equipment manufacturers even go for this crap? It is almost unimaginable that we have somehow managed to build a universally accessible Internet. Someone must have had a brain fart and forgot to grease our public servants.
Back in the day I truly enjoyed my first TiVo. Awesome product and what a concept. Add a dash of DirecTV and one ends up with TiShit. The thing changes channels on its own to record infomercials, convininently and regularly reorganinzes my channel list to include removed by me shopping channels, bitches constantly about not being able to call home and a host of other annoying things. AND to top it all off we're being charged $5 or so a month for a DVR SERVICE. What fucking service!? I bought the damn thing for top dollars, it's a computer with a hard drive and all it does is record what I tell it to. What service!? That whole DRM shit is really no surprise and will likely go the same way. We enjoyed having pricey but no less standardized CD's and DVD's for a long while but the end is near. We'll end up with yet another "service". Wanna listen at home? Here you go. Wanna listen in your car? Sure, you'll need to pay more for this additional, exciting "service". Wanna listen to some other record label? Well you'll need a whole new equipment for that. Actually it's already here in the form of sat radio. It's not about piracy at all. Frankly those who'd even consider watching a video-recorded movie are pathetic losers who have no appreciacion for film, any film and will not spend real money on it anyway. Pirates will do whatever they do and no crappy DRM will stop them just like all the software activations and cable/sat scrambling haven't done a thing but to annoy and limit an already and duly paying customer. Actually it may as well increase the demand for pirated media not because it's cheaper or free, but because you'll be actually able to listen to it, watch it or use it. It is not about providing customers with content, it's about controlling what you do and selling sub-content. Commercials on TV don't work cause everyone hates them so they need to sell shit some other way. They'd be glad to precede every song on a CD with an "information from our sponsor" and to ensure sponsor's happy, it'd be neat if they could guarrantee that the customer will definitely listen to the promo - cause he's got no say in the matter. Yea, he paid for the CD, who gives a shit, we can make more money this way. It also be cool if we somehow made it a law prohibiting turning down the volume for the promo's duration. Many DVD's already have that great feature and one must sit thru several minutes of stupid - ehem pardon me, "exciting" previews before they get to watch a movie that they paid for. They're so exciting they have to make us watch it, to watch it. Some media
Most interesting stuff. I was glad to see "Stanley" win. The "Highlander" and "Sandstorm" obviously had a lot of tech in them but "Stan" was clearily more reflective of the challange's merit - create a robot that can make decisions. The Red team crammed their vehicles with so much data it was like programming a production line robot. Yeah, it was a robot and a damn impressive one at that, but "Stan" could and had to actually decide things - and it did too. The idea of the laser + video overlay was most brilliant. While watching the program I could not help but been thrown back to those 80's films where the underdogs try to save some place against a heavy muscle of well oiled, militarily organized, and funded up the wazoo industrial juggernaut. Not trying to put down the Red team, obviously a brilliant bunch, but the VW was way [i]brilliant-er[/i].
I do in principle support the TV license, because the BBC (especially the Radio - World Service + Radio 3,4) is extremely good. However, I think that the TV license is a bad way to do it If you think a TV license is bad try putting up with 4 minutes of commercials every 6-7 minutes of programming. Here in the good ol' US of A we may not be forced to pay blanket TV tax (they just hide it under "other" on our cable or sat bills) but then our TV - sans PBS and premium movie channels - is a completely unwatchable shit. Olympics on NBC anyone? There's no free lunch, and that's fine, but at least for your ~$200/yr you get something. Granted the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, taxes always hurt cause most see them as unfair and at least 50% will indeed be correct, but....the alternative is really no better if much worse.