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Slashback: Revolutionism, Media, Oregon 201

Posted by timothy from the in-knoxville-among-the-ants dept.
Updates and clarifications in tonight's Slashback include word on the extra-theatrical availability of Revolution OS, consideration of Free software in Oregon. availability of HP's new streaming-audio toy (which does not play Ogg Vorbis), and more. Read on for the details.
Bonus material is always, well ... bonus. Khyron writes "Revolution OS, the definitive documentary film on the evolution of Linux and the relationship between the Free Software and Open Source movements, is finally available for purchase on DVD! The 2-disc special edition set now available includes full-length commentary by the director, as well as an additional 70 minutes of interview footage, a still image gallery, biographies, a 113-page documents section, and even the 'Free Software Song' music video. Additionally, in the spirit of its subject matter, the DVDs are unencrypted and region-free. I have contacted the director, J.T.S. Moore, and he is eager to grant permission to LUGs to hold free screenings -- he asks that you contact him first to coordinate and he'll even list your screening on his website."

Sounds and pictures from the same box -- impossible! An anonymous reader writes "The HP Digital Media Receiver ( discussed here before) is available for sale at CompUSA and online. The wired version is $199, and the wireless one is $299.

I've been using it for a little while, and I really like it so far. It took a while for the PC software to start serving, but now its fine. It found all my playlists and digital photos on the first pass, and the network setup worked properly too. I'd like to see higher-resolution photos, but it's a pretty cool way to show the pictures to my less-techie friends.

Also, I installed the PC software on both of my home PCs, and the Receiver automatically finds the music on both! It did have a bunch of duplicates (which made it easy for me to go prune out all my dual mp3s), but it was pretty cool. You can't edit a playlist at the TV set, which is a bit of a bummer, but I use WinAmp on my PC anyway, and that worked fine. I like the interface on the TV a lot (although it's a little dull after a while), and it sorted most of my media properly. Some of my MP3s ended up in weird places, but I guess that's from the ID3 tags?

One other thing - I am pretty sure I read somewhere that the Receiver runs Linux. Did anyone else see this too? The only other thing about it I didn't really like was the lack of a reset button. There is a power button, but it didn't reset the device when I pushed it, so I had to unplug it once.

Anyhow, I'm sure there are going to be a ton more products like this one out there soon, but I definitely prefer this to the Prismiq and the Audiotron. It's a much more intuitive box, although a front-panel LCD would be a really nice add!"

Since the general welfare means you, too. Cooper Stevenson writes "Thanks to all of those who called, wrote, and emailed their Legislators in Oregon, House Bill 2892 will get a hearing as covered by the Oregonian:

'A new bill would make Oregon the first state to take a formal stance against the hefty fees and technological limitations of software produced by large corporations such as Microsoft.'

'A House committee is scheduled to consider a proposal that promotes "open-source" software, which doesn't charge recurring fees and enables customers to alter the software code, making it more compatible with other programs.'

Global neural links sought. Controlio writes "With the first truly televised war underway, for the first time we have media members armed with sat trucks chasing the folks with the automatic weapons around. Several fixed cameras are mounted around Baghdad, and members of the media from all around the world are sending reports from the field using sat uplinks and video phones. So the question is, those of you with access to a Big Dish, have you found any wild feeds yet? I live in Michigan (U.S.), and have only been able to pinpoint local media backhauls (like Fox's news backhaul to their local affiliates), but nothing from abroad. Anyone out there have any sat and channel information for either the Baghdad cams, foreign news agencies, or best of all, the news feeds from the front line?"

This question is a good followup to a recent question posted as an Ask Slashdot seeking unbiased news about the current war.
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

Slashback: Revolutionism, Media, Oregon More

Slashback: Revolutionism, Media, Oregon

Comments Filter:

  • sound and video on a PC (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:05PM (#5611385)
    I remember people used to say, when I would demonstrate my C-64 to them, that you would never be able to watch tv-quality video on the computer. Now when I play tv-quality video on my computer, I'm upset about how inferior it is, running in it's tiny little postage stamp frame and or all big and blocky.

    Course, we'll never be able to play HDTV on a computer.

    • Re:sound and video on a PC (Score:5, Interesting)

      by stwrtpj ( 518864 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:09PM (#5611415) Journal
      Course, we'll never be able to play HDTV on a computer.

      You realize, don't you, by actually saying that something will never happen, you have practically assured that it will happen at some point. Just like when people said man would not fly.

      Of course, this still doesn't explain the lack of flying cars ...

    • Re:sound and video on a PC (Score:5, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:10PM (#5611419)
      That's the way it is. Just as soon as you say a computer can't do it, someone makes a computer do it. But I'm quite sure that my computer can't run a realistic Uma Thurman simulation, with full tactile responses, just like a holodeck. Not possible.

      • Re:sound and video on a PC (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        So your computer can't simulate an anorexic cadaver with Death's face? And this is bad how?

      • Re:sound and video on a PC (Score:2, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        No, what you actually mean to say is that no-one will make an Open Source Uma Thurman simulation.
        I'm sure you'll want to fix the behavioral bugs... like not wanting to hang out with a Slashdot geek.

        • No, what you actually mean to say is that no-one will make an Open Source Uma Thurman simulation. I'm sure you'll want to fix the behavioral bugs... like not wanting to hang out with a Slashdot geek.

          Or trying to sleep with all his friends...

      • Just as soon as you say a computer can't do it, someone makes a computer do it.

        A computer can't make my toddler sit up and eat her dinner. In addition, it can't tell me the winning numbers for Saturday's Powerball drawing, and make women understandable to men.

        *crossing fingers*

    • The HDTV Standard is also inferior to your some computer monitor resolutions, Why don't people get that it's all a matter of resolution, NTSC 480 lines, HDTV 1920 x 1080 or more commonly 1280 x 720

      Home televisions are outrageously over priced for their ability.
      • no they aren't, how much is a 29" computer monitor? A lot more than the $350 I paid for my 29" flat tv with 4 video input sources I can assure you. Sure it's standard definition, but the number of times I wished I had more resolution while watching normal tv programming can be counted on one hand. Now for watching movies I can see having an HDTV or beyond, but for the tripe they show on tv I really don't want to spend any more.

  • Wild Feed (Score:5, Funny)

    by Z4rd0Z ( 211373 ) <joseph at mammalia dot net> on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:06PM (#5611392) Homepage
    Here's [saskschools.ca] a wild feed if anyone's interested.

    • Re:Wild Feed (Score:4, Interesting)

      by joe_bruin ( 266648 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @09:36PM (#5611824) Homepage Journal
      actually, there are few useful wild feeds.
      the embedded news crews are equipped with encryption hardware (software?), so as not to make the information available to the enemy. same is true for field reports from kuwait and qatar.
      this may not be the case with the baghdad cams (where the iraqis may not have approved encryption equipment coming into the country), but those are not very interesting at the moment anyway.

  • paradox (Score:4, Interesting)

    by pangu ( 322010 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:07PM (#5611398) Homepage
    Revolution OS now available on media that the Revolution OS isn't supposed to be able to play...

    • Re:paradox (Score:3, Funny)

      by Z4rd0Z ( 211373 )
      Truly a profound observation.

    • Re:paradox (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gregfortune ( 313889 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:11PM (#5611427)
      It's not encrypted or region coded so it's perfectly legal to watch. The only contention arises when the DVD has been encrypted forcing us to break the encryption before we can watch the movie... Obviously, reading the entire post can be helpful sometimes...
      • Did anyone bother to write a Linux DVD player for unencrypted videos? What's the point of writing a player if it won't get you arrested and exiled to a Turkish MPAA prison?

        j/k, I assume that the files are just unencrypted mpegs found after mounting the disc?

        • Re:what player? (Score:4, Informative)

          by morgue-ann ( 453365 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:41PM (#5611569)
          Ogle and xine will play unencrypted DVDs if you are missing libdvdcss. In fact, xine has libdvdread and libdvdnav (and liba52?) in the main build now, so xine is all you need if you're playing libre discs.

          There aren't many region free and CSS free discs in the US, but The Man Who Fell to Earth (VALIS) is one.

          Revolution OS has been available from Netflix as a single disc since at least Christmas. My parents & sister watched it while visiting & learned more in 86 minutes about the open source movement than I could have told them in three hours.

          My mother had to quit a job teaching Windows apps because they crashed so much she was embarrased. She consults on medical billing stuff running on MUMPS & VAXen (i.e. stable), so she was happy to learn that an alternative to Microsoft has some real momentum.

          • because the Exchange server that my Java applets needed to place orders fucked ittself up so many damn times. (the config files would randomly reset themselves for factory default every week or two)

            A big problem with Micro$oft's crap is that it makes those using it look bad, beyond mere embarrasement. I switched my father over to Linux several months ago, and he has never looked back.
          • actually I would venture that ~50% of DVD's are CSS and region free, as that is what almost all porn is and porn is probably half of the DVD's out there.

      • Patents (Score:2, Informative)

        by yerricde ( 125198 )

        It's not encrypted or region coded so it's perfectly legal to watch.

        Not entirely. As far as I know, AC3 audio and MPEG-2 video are patented in the United States.

      • Re:paradox (Score:5, Informative)

        by homer_ca ( 144738 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:54PM (#5611642)
        Actually the MPEG2 codec is patented, so free DVD player software would be illegal in the US unless you paid your $2.50 to the MPEGLA [mpegla.com].
        • Well, since the GPL forbids the distribution of software that is covered by patents, it is completly illegial to distribute the software (eg. MPlayer) in the first place, so paying $2.50 doesn't change things much.

        • Re:paradox (Score:3, Interesting)

          by bfree ( 113420 )
          My immediate reaction to the comments here that the DVD is region free and unencrypted (same thing is it not for DVDs) was does the case carry the DVD logo, and are they paying any licensing fees? I've only ever come across one high capacity video disc for sale without a DVD logo (and regret not buying it just for the sake of it even though it was a German metal band) but I would love to see more. Anyway, your right, playing back DVDs is a legal problem for Free Software, not just because of the encrypt

    • Re:paradox (Score:5, Interesting)

      by MsGeek ( 162936 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:15PM (#5611447) Homepage Journal
      No paradox: the version of Xine that comes with Lycoris Linux and Mandrake 9.1 has the DVD Menu plugin which will allow you full access to the Revolution OS DVD. Since there is no CSS encryption, there is no problem.
    • Revolution OS now available on media that the Revolution OS isn't supposed to be able to play...

      If you had read the linked article, you would've learned that the Revolution OS DVD is region-free and CSS-free.

      Then again, this is Slashdot...what the hell was I thinking, that someone would read an article before posting about it?

  • About time (Score:5, Funny)

    by mao che minh ( 611166 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:08PM (#5611404) Journal
    I had almost given up on ever seeing actually seeing Revolution OS.

    What's this, a free software music video? this is going to be one of dumbest, geekiest things ever created. I can't wait to watch it.

    • ...of Revolution OS are the bizarre physical mannerisms of RMS and ESR. I enjoyed all their commentary but I had to go home and take a shower to get rid of that creepy feeling.

    • What's this, a free software music video? this is going to be one of dumbest, geekiest things ever created. I can't wait to watch it.

      Oh my god no! Don't do it! The free software song is probably the biggest and best advert for Microsoft around. It's not only an incredibly bad song, but watching people actually sing it is fanatically embarassing and creepy. When RMS sang it at FOSDEM, it made the whole thing feel like some damn cult, as opposed to a bunch of geeks talking about cool stuff (like it was).

  • Digital Media Player (Score:3, Interesting)

    by doublesix ( 590400 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:12PM (#5611434)
    I highly recommend BroadQ's software. It uses a Sony Playstation to play MP3's DivX's etc over a home network. Its a work in progress but it rocks! BroadQ.co [broadq.com]

  • HP Digital Media Receiver doesn't support ogg... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by daVinci1980 ( 73174 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:16PM (#5611460) Homepage
    ...Won't stop me from buying it.

    I'm all for Open standards, and I have all of my music encoded as ogg on my machine, but I have to say that I'm disappointed with the sound quality of it.

    You can debate it all you like, but I've found that Ogg produces some sound artifacts that MP3 doesn't, that are more irritating to my big ol' ears.

    • Re:HP Digital Media Receiver doesn't support ogg.. (Score:5, Informative)

      by evilviper ( 135110 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @11:00PM (#5612182) Journal
      I find that INCREDIBLY hard to believe. Not only has my experience been very positive (and I've got really good ears, and equipment to match), but the double-blind tests conducted have said the same.

      Are you sure the problem isn't just that you don't like hearing the high-frequencies, or maybe you're just so accustomed to MP3 that you don't like hearing music without the artifacts?
      • I personally have submitted three different test samples where a Lame encoded VBR with -extreme was undistinguishable from the source but where a high bitrate ogg was easily picked out. There are definitly some high frequency issues as well as one bass distortion issue present in ogg. I hope that they are able to work these out (they may be already, I submitted several months ago), but to say that ogg is perfect is simply not true.
      • maybe you're just so accustomed to MP3 that you don't like hearing music without the artifacts?

        When I first started using Ogg, I kept thinking I was hearing artifacts. But everytime I went back to the original CD I couldn't tell the difference; what I thought was artifacts was actually part of the original uncompressed track.

        I think Ogg is almost *too* good. ;)

  • Revolution OS from HP (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ralphart ( 70342 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:21PM (#5611485)
    HP sent me a FREE copy.

    I got several calls from various marketing/survey types (must have clicked on a box on their website one day expressing interest in Linux) and after asking a few questions said they'd be sending me information. Imagine my surprise when the package contained a DVD of Revolution OS.

    Sorry to say I haven't watched it yet (kids thought it over-the-top geeky and refused access to the DVD player).

  • Karma whoring (Score:2, Informative)

    by daserver ( 524964 )
    mms [sunsite.dk] is a menu system for playback of music and movies. It supports framebuffer/dxr3 and lircd/keyboard.

  • Ogg? (Score:3, Funny)

    by lostchicken ( 226656 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:26PM (#5611510)
    Can it play Ogg Vor... Oh. Never mind.
  • Umm, I was at the Open Source Weekend [www.osw.ca] here in Ottawa, Canada January 25th and 26th and they showed Revolution OS and gave several DVD copies away as prizes. So the DVD version has been out for a while.

    I can only assume that this DVD has more stuff? *shrug*
    • Did they really give those away as prizes?

      I was there, but donated $20 to OCLUG and they gave me a copy... it wasn't a prize so much as an incentive to donate $15 or more (anything less than $15 (IIRC) and you didn't get the DVD).

      And I think the version that /. is talking about is the "bonus" 2-DVD set, such as found here [thinkgeek.com].

  • HP Digital Media Receiver (Score:4, Interesting)

    by ryanr ( 30917 ) <ryan@thievco.com> on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:55PM (#5611645) Homepage Journal
    Close, but not quite enough... I want a similar box with a DVD (ROM) drive in it, so one can walk up and play physical DVDs in it, too. I was all set to buy a GoVideo D2730, but SonicBlue decided to go bankrupt and sell off the product lines instead of releasing them.

    Yeah, I know, I DO plan to build a HTPC, but I'd like to have a box available in the $200-300 range that the wife and children can use as simply as a DVD player. I can take care of the media server behind the sceens myself. I'm not going to build a $1000 HTPC for each TV in the house...

    Ideally, the box would do 100bT (the HP box says it's 10), and I'd like it to run an OS that I get source for, so I can customize it. Oh, and a pony, I'd like a pony.

    Seriously though, I'd love to have the proverbial Linux set-top box, with maybe a 5 1/4 bay to accept a DVD drive (that could cost extra, I don't care that much.) The important bits are that it be AV-style casing, be in the $200-300 range, and have flawless, standard NTSC output. Doesn't need to be HDTV yet. Just composite and s-video, maybe component would be nice. Needs an IR input for remote as well. I'm actually willing to put up with the endless software upgrade cycle and small glitches that represent an immature or beta software base. I can upgrade/try other progs as needed.

    Anyone know of such a boxen that meets my criteria?
    • The hardware's been availible for a really long time. Unfortunately, no software has come out to support it.

      What DO these people do with their HTPCs? How the heck do you effectively control windows/linux with a remote (other than moving the mouse around with a joystick)?

      We simply need a tivo-like application to organize all our videos, etc. Even the Digital Media Center edition of windows doesn't come close, handles music horribly, requires hardware mpeg compression, and STILL stresses a P4 (and yet the

      • Re:HP Digital Media Receiver (Score:4, Interesting)

        by ryanr ( 30917 ) <ryan@thievco.com> on Thursday March 27, 2003 @10:18PM (#5611990) Homepage Journal
        The hardware's been availible for a really long time. Unfortunately, no software has come out to support it.

        I'm kinda seeing the opposite, at least for the hardware I'm looking for (as descibed in my original post). Specifically, I'm not seeing a lot of hardware that is in a small VCR-size case, perhaps solid-state, built-in IR receiver, video chipset specifically designed for TV output. I've seen a few set-top box announcements, but I'm not seeing them make it to market. Maybe software is the reason, I don't know.

        On the other hand, I see many Linux video-related software projects for general-purpose x86 PCs, if you don't mind spending the $1000 for decent hardware and having the noisy, large PC by the TV.

        What DO these people do with their HTPCs? How the heck do you effectively control windows/linux with a remote (other than moving the mouse around with a joystick)?

        You don't control the OS in general from a remote. (well, if you want to use your TV as a monitor, you can get wireless mice and keyboards.) For my application, you set the machine to boot with your AV application full-screen, and your remote talks to that. Think running Windows Media Player from a remote. All the functions you'd want to do could be done from a stardard universal remote, except for the naming & categorization tasks. For what I'm after, that's done on the server though, not the set-top boxes.

        We simply need a tivo-like application to organize all our videos, etc. Even the Digital Media Center edition of windows doesn't come close, handles music horribly, requires hardware mpeg compression, and STILL stresses a P4 (and yet the tivo can work easily with a 50mhz PPC chip). Sure, I know about mythTV and freevo - the two projects certainly look promising, but aren't even close to ideal yet (although linux is certainly winning this race, I'd like to see something from apple).

        That's what I'm talking about... In fact, the TIVO is just about exactly what I'm after, right down to running Linux. Problem is that it's not aimed at being a remote DVD player, but rather it's PVR function (duh). Plus the subscription fees and their attempts to keep it as closed as possible are really counter-productive to the kinds of projects I'd like to try. Still, the hardware base is about right, and the price would be about right without the large hard drives.
      • How the heck do you effectively control windows/linux with a remote...

        LIRC [lirc.org] for Linux. It can control lots of software [lirc.org], including at least one HTPC software project.

        It has a windows port [sourceforge.net] too.
    • The ZapStation [zapmedia.com] is probably a bit more than you need, but I find it works pretty well.
    • Geat a cheap computer with an AGP slot, and an Nvidia "Personal Cinema"...

      That's not exactly an endorsement. I got an ATI All-in-Wonder only to later find out the that TV-out is completely useless with the Linux (gatos) drivers... Yes, I'm quite pissed-off with ATI.

      • That doesn't seem to be a particular model of card, rather it's a family of cards with capture hardware? and a software bundle (Windows).... is there an inexpensive model in that family?

        Does/can one of these cards boot the machine on the tv-out port? (I.e. it POSTs on the TV)

        • and a software bundle (Windows)....

          I would REALLY suggest you stick to Linux. Freevo works great. With Windows, you are going to be severely limited in what you can do.

          is there an inexpensive model in that family?

          I wouldn't know. As I said, I went for an All-In-Wonder, and now regret the purchase... The NVidia cards are the only ones with fully-functional drivers for Linux.

          Does/can one of these cards boot the machine on the tv-out port? (I.e. it POSTs on the TV)

          I have NEVER come across any card w

    • have flawless, standard NTSC output

      Make up your mind :)

  • Lacking Rendevous :( (Score:4, Interesting)

    by miradu2000 ( 196048 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:55PM (#5611647) Homepage
    More important than Ogg support IMHO how HP decided not to implement the ZeroConf (apple's rendevous) stanered into this device. For consumers to realyl pick up on this, it needs to be plug and play - the ONLY way that will happen is if you don't have to set up anything.. Rendevous lets that happen. The new Tivo option will preform much better than this do to it's rendevous integration with computers.

    *sigh*... maybe in a firmware rev?

    • I'd really love to have Turtle Beach's Audiotron supporting Rendevous/ZeroConf. Of course, I'd like to be able to control the Audiotron from iTunes.

      I suppose we can all wait until Windows 2003 implements Rendezvous. Then all hardware will support it, and Mac owners will have one more thing they can kvetch about Microsoft stealing, while the anti-Mac crowd will respond with taunts about market share and CPU speed. The natural balance of the universe will thus be restored.

  • OK then (Score:4, Insightful)

    by The Bungi ( 221687 ) <thebungi@gmail.com> on Thursday March 27, 2003 @08:56PM (#5611650) Homepage
    'A new bill would make Oregon the first state to take a formal stance against the hefty fees and technological limitations of software produced by large corporations such as Microsoft.'

    I would like more information about this. States have tons of custom and commercial software packages they use for everything from tracking DUI offenders to registering kids in school districts. And those products more likely than not use things like databases and middleware things that are mostly OS-specific.

    Forget about Windows and Office for a sec and think about the costs related to moving all that to an "open" platform. Especially today, when most states are flat broke and pulling money away from programs like education and welfare.

    Does anyone have any real, specific information as to how Oregon plans to deal with this, outside of the all too familiar "oh, another blow to m$" static I keep hearing?

    It seems to me that these are mostly empty gestures. What they should be doing is introducing alternative operating systems and applications selectively, where it makes sense and they represent the best tool for the job at hand. In this scenario, the "you must use [insert software]" is nothing more than an imposition made by the very people who know absolutely nothing about these things (the legislators) to the detriment of the people who will actually burden this (the MIS staffs at the state agencies). And ultimately, to the detriment of the taxpayers as well.

    It's a bad Dilbert cartoon - at a massive scale.

    • Re:OK then (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Otter ( 3800 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @09:33PM (#5611815) Journal
      What are you taking about? This bill only requires that open source alternatives be _considered_. It certainly doesn't require that all existing software be thrown out.

      Look, I'm as game as anyone for ridiculing the kiddies who think because they get by with only Linux for their computer use (email, IM web browsing) it should be shoved down the throats of every highway department and armed forces branch, but that has nothing to do with this.

      • Once again I have to ask why we need a law to have OSS considered. Is there something in the law saying only closed source software can be considered? IF it is like most software purchases, they have a set of requirements and they are required to get software that fills those requirements. There is nothing stopping OSS from being considered, so why would it have to be mandated that it be considered? No one would like a law mandating that closed source software be considered, because there is nothing fro

        • Re:OK then (Score:3, Insightful)

          by fucksl4shd0t ( 630000 )

          Once again I have to ask why we need a law to have OSS considered. Is there something in the law saying only closed source software can be considered?

          Before OSS became a serious thing (or rather, before it was mature enough to become a worthy alternative), people only used closed source software because that's all there was. However, even in those days, many people wouldn't consider all of the options when making a purchase. Realistically, many people still don't, on anything. However, there are laws

          • I talked to Rep. Barnhart (a regular /. reader, BTW!) a bit ago, and it's actually stronger than that. Under the current Oregon rules for competitive bidding of software projects (and I believe this to be true in most states) there is no straightforward mechanism to make it possible to consider open source even if the contracting agency knows they want it. One of the primary purposes of the "must consider" clause is to give contracting agencies that want OSS the ability to reject commercial bids.

            The oth

          • The PHB syndrome can't be avoided. There will always be people who prefer one type or brand of software over another and will slant things in it's favor. It happens with OSS as well as MS and other closed source. If the person making the decision likes RedHat more than MS, there is a greater chance that RedHat will get picked. No law will change that.

            It seems the root of what you are worried about is that there should be a fair process for determining the purchases, but this bill doesn't really do that
  • I wonder if the video transfer is anamorphic. It says it is 2.35:1 letterboxed, but some people call any video that is wider than 16:9 letterboxed, because it always has horizontal bars, even if the transfer is anamorphic.
  • Sounds cool. Can I just download an ISO of the DVD instead?

  • I need sleep (Score:2, Funny)

    by grondu ( 239962 )
    region-free

    Man, I need sleep. I read that as Rogaine-free.

  • What a deal! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Otter ( 3800 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @09:40PM (#5611837) Journal
    All corporate patrons receive two gratis hours of Free Software licensing and/or GPL consulting from FSF's GPL Compliance Labs (with a reduced rate for further consultation).

    Wow, two free hours of RMS insisting that "it's correctly termed GNU/Linux -- here, read this 85 point manifesto."

    It's a nice chunk of change they've picked up, though. Looking at their rates [fsf.org], that's $10,000 each from IBM and HP, and probably $500 each from the others. I wonder if they really got that much out of them or if they offered a discount to get the ball rolling.

  • As a former state worker (Score:4, Insightful)

    by eadint ( 156250 ) on Thursday March 27, 2003 @09:51PM (#5611889) Homepage Journal
    I worked at EDD in sacramento. and i think gnu would be great there. in california 90% of the real work is done by tn3270 this can easily be done in linux. the major needs are. email, word processor, spreadsheet and presentations for the managers. the main road block would be exchange most big corporations love that program and i don't think that there is a real alternative to it. but I'm sure that that could be worked out.
    Star office
    X3279 or something like that
    Mozilla for a web browser.
    although i would set the managers up with Apples. the less they have to thing the better off you are, as a former it person for them i should know.

    • There are two alternatives to exchange (maybe 3), Lotus Notes, and Oracle's email server which is supposed to function as a drop in replacement for Exchange. There is also the old HP UNIX email server that was also a drop in replacement for exchange and which last I had heard was picked up by one of the largest users and was going to be worked on and made commercially available again (this was like 9 months ago, haven't looked into it since). Also if you want to put up with Exchange as the email server you
  • Forget that, where can I find the Girls Gone Wild feeds?

    Drunk grils showing their breasts for 10 cent beads... Now that's a good deal.
  • I'd buy it if I didn't have to use credit card. I refuse to ever get a credit card. I wish they'd except bank transfer.....
  • ... sounds like a stripped down version of the HP de100c [hp.com], (PDF manual) which, although it is no longer sold, does run linux, and is a neat little hackable box.

    I think the DEC had the potential to be a really great product. Seems like it got lost somewhere in the merger... plus, when it was released a couple of years ago it was priced way out of the market. Damn shame.

  • One other thing - I am pretty sure I read somewhere that the Receiver runs Linux. Did anyone else see this too? The only other thing about it I didn't really like was the lack of a reset button. There is a power button, but it didn't reset the device when I pushed it, so I had to unplug it once.

    Why in the world would anyone want to reboot it if it runs Linux ;) ?

  • I find The Guardian to be one of the most unbiased, objective news sources in existance:
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/

    If you want to get another perspective on the news, Al-Jazeera is the thing for you. It's just as biased as CNN, but it provides a different angle on the news:
    http://www.aljazeera.net/

    Not mainstream:
    http://dearraed.blogspot.com/

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