On Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:31:32 +0000, Stephen wrote:

>>> ^z ^z ^z Now I'm 19 yo ;)
>> 
>> That means you're 21? ;-)
>> 
>> 
> Yes! (Arrg! My nose!) :-)

Careful you don't bang it on the door frame... ;-)

Jim

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On Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:36:02 +0000, Stephen wrote:

>>> ^g^g^g     ^g^g^g^g^g  <UK ring tone> :-)
>> 
>> LOL, I may have to set my phone to use that. ;-)
>> 
>> 
> I remember when I was about ^z ^z ^z +2 yo I made a tape loop for a
> teletype 33 with that had that sequence. It sounded ok over the noise in
> the factory. :twisted:

23? ;-)

That is twisted.

Jim

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Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:31:32 +0000, Stephen wrote:
> 
>>>> ^z ^z ^z Now I'm 19 yo ;)
>>> That means you're 21? ;-)
>>>
>>>
>> Yes! (Arrg! My nose!) :-)
> 
> Careful you don't bang it on the door frame... ;-)
> 

:-)

-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

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Jim Henderson wrote:
> On Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:36:02 +0000, Stephen wrote:
> 
>>>> ^g^g^g     ^g^g^g^g^g  <UK ring tone> :-)
>>> LOL, I may have to set my phone to use that. ;-)
>>>
>>>
>> I remember when I was about ^z ^z ^z +2 yo I made a tape loop for a
>> teletype 33 with that had that sequence. It sounded ok over the noise in
>> the factory. :twisted:
> 
> 23? ;-)
> 

About 21/22

> That is twisted.
> 

And so am I ;-)

-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

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On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:08:10 +0000, Stephen wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Sun, 25 Oct 2009 21:36:02 +0000, Stephen wrote:
>> 
>>>>> ^g^g^g     ^g^g^g^g^g  <UK ring tone> :-)
>>>> LOL, I may have to set my phone to use that. ;-)
>>>>
>>>>
>>> I remember when I was about ^z ^z ^z +2 yo I made a tape loop for a
>>> teletype 33 with that had that sequence. It sounded ok over the noise
>>> in the factory. :twisted:
>> 
>> 23? ;-)
>> 
>> 
> About 21/22

Sounds about right. :-)

>> That is twisted.
>> 
>> 
> And so am I ;-)

Well, we knew that. ;-)

Jim

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Jim Henderson wrote:

>>> That is twisted.
>>>
>>>
>> And so am I ;-)
> 
> Well, we knew that. ;-)
> 
> Jim

Oh! So you did, I forgot. <Twisted and senile>
-- 

Best Regards,
	Stephen

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On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:26:52 +0000, Stephen wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
> 
>>>> That is twisted.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> And so am I ;-)
>> 
>> Well, we knew that. ;-)
>> 
>> Jim
> 
> Oh! So you did, I forgot. <Twisted and senile>

LOL

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Jim Henderson wrote:
> unfortunately, the way Apple has been trying to break compatibility with 
> Linux with their latest products, I'm not sure I will ever buy an iPod 
> (the 1g mini that I have was given to me about 6 years ago).

The way Apple has been trying to break compatibility with the rest of 
the world, I'm not sure I will ever buy any Apple device.  I'm currently 
trying to get away from iTunes, but it's hard finding something with 
good podcast support to replace it with.

...Chambers

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Saul Luizaga wrote:
> When I'm reading anything on real paper looking for something I 
> sometimes think "where the hell is the search window?" :-D
> 
> And when I'm watching a movie on TV I also search for the "rewind" to 
> check out again a certain scene as I do on the DVD Player :-)

I can already do that :)

My TV is my monitor; when I watch TV, it's in Media Center, through my 
tuner card.

...Chambers

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On Mon, 26 Oct 2009 19:40:46 -0700, Chambers wrote:

> The way Apple has been trying to break compatibility with the rest of
> the world, I'm not sure I will ever buy any Apple device.  I'm currently
> trying to get away from iTunes, but it's hard finding something with
> good podcast support to replace it with.

The thing that I'm finding is that podcasts are usually very poorly 
tagged, which makes it hard to classify them as a podcast.

Being a Linux user, though, I don't use iTunes to grab podcasts, I find 
gpodder works very well, and my wife uses Banshee for hers (as she's also 
a Linux user).

Jim

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Chambers wrote:
> The way Apple has been trying to break compatibility with the rest of 

You know, I twitch a bit every time they have a "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac" ad. 
They've gotten so crass. Why can't they say what's good about a Mac, like 
they do in the iPhone ads?

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

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Darren New wrote:
> Chambers wrote:
>> The way Apple has been trying to break compatibility with the rest of 
> 
> You know, I twitch a bit every time they have a "I'm a PC, I'm a Mac" 
> ad. They've gotten so crass. Why can't they say what's good about a Mac, 
> like they do in the iPhone ads?
> 

Because the major selling points are style and a sense of superiority?

I love the MS shopper ads, where they give someone a budget of $1500 to 
get a notebook, and they come out of the Apple store saying "I can't 
afford anything in there!" :)

...Chambers

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Chambers wrote:

> My TV is my monitor; when I watch TV, it's in Media Center, through my 
> tuner card.

...so it *is* possible then?

I'd almost be interested in finding out how, if it weren't for the fact 
that I don't watch TV anymore...

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Invisible wrote:
> Chambers wrote:
> 
>> My TV is my monitor; when I watch TV, it's in Media Center, through my 
>> tuner card.
> 
> ...so it *is* possible then?
> 
> I'd almost be interested in finding out how,

The tuner card is PCIe x1.  Plug it it.  Plug your antenna, satellite or 
cable feed into the card.  Launch Media Center, and let it scan the 
channels.  Tell it what area you're in, and it will download the 
schedule automatically.

That's it.

...Chambers

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>> ...so it *is* possible then?
>>
>> I'd almost be interested in finding out how,
> 
> The tuner card is PCIe x1.  Plug it it.  Plug your antenna, satellite or 
> cable feed into the card.  Launch Media Center, and let it scan the 
> channels.  Tell it what area you're in, and it will download the 
> schedule automatically.
> 
> That's it.

Heh. I'm guessing the tuner card is pretty damned expensive though. ;-)

Actually, what *might* be useful is if I could hook up my computer to 
another computer and record its output. (There are programs which are 
supposed to record what's on your screen, but none of them actually 
work.) I have no idea what kind of equipment you need to record a DVI 
signal though...

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Chambers wrote:
> Saul Luizaga wrote:
>> And when I'm watching a movie on TV I also search for the "rewind" to 
>> check out again a certain scene as I do on the DVD Player :-)
> 
> I can already do that :)

My mum accidentally discovered last night that she can do that too. She 
lent on one of the many buttons on the TV remote, and the program 
started playing backwards...

(Obviously *I* had to sort this out. Because, you know, my mum is too 
stupid even after all these decades to work out that the triangle means 
"play", the square means "stop", the two rectangles means "pause", and 
the pairs of arrows indicate moving forwards or backwards...)

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> Heh. I'm guessing the tuner card is pretty damned expensive though. ;-)

You can pick up USB tuners for under 20 GBP now.  I doubt internal PCI ones 
are much more for basic functionality.

> (There are programs which are supposed to record what's on your screen, 
> but none of them actually work.)

FRAPS is pretty much the standard for 3D content (games, 3D software, the 
Vista desktop!) and IME works well so long as you have enough CPU power 
spare to stream the video to disk - I think it lightly compresses it 
(losslessly IIRC) before writing, but you certainly want to recompress it 
later to a standard format that takes less space.

> I have no idea what kind of equipment you need to record a DVI signal 
> though...

Given that my fairly recent PC can compress a 1920x1080 signal to h264 about 
4x slower than realtime, I suspect you are talking about some serious 
broadcast-quality kit to do that job at desktop resolutions and frame rates.

Of course you could output to sVideo and then feed that in to a bog-standard 
analogue capture card if you're not worried about the quality.  Or just 
point a video camera at the monitor :-)

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> (Obviously *I* had to sort this out. Because, you know, my mum is too 
> stupid even after all these decades to work out that the triangle means 
> "play", the square means "stop", the two rectangles means "pause", and the 
> pairs of arrows indicate moving forwards or backwards...)

Yeh it's funny how after apparently years of using equipment that follows 
this standard, when you instruct such a person to "press the play button" or 
such, they suddenly have no idea what you mean.

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scott wrote:
>> (Obviously *I* had to sort this out. Because, you know, my mum is too 
>> stupid even after all these decades to work out that the triangle 
>> means "play", the square means "stop", the two rectangles means 
>> "pause", and the pairs of arrows indicate moving forwards or 
>> backwards...)
> 
> Yeh it's funny how after apparently years of using equipment that 
> follows this standard, when you instruct such a person to "press the 
> play button" or such, they suddenly have no idea what you mean.

Seriously, *how* many years has triangle been the play button on 
cassette desks, CD players, VHS units, DVD players...??

But my mum can't figure out how to work any of these devices, 
apparently. Stupid cow...

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scott wrote:
>> Heh. I'm guessing the tuner card is pretty damned expensive though. ;-)
> 
> You can pick up USB tuners for under 20 GBP now.  I doubt internal PCI 
> ones are much more for basic functionality.

Mmm, OK.

Pitty there's never anything good on TV anymore, eh? I could have a TV 
in my bedroom if I wanted...

>> (There are programs which are supposed to record what's on your 
>> screen, but none of them actually work.)
> 
> FRAPS is pretty much the standard for 3D content (games, 3D software, 
> the Vista desktop!) and IME works well so long as you have enough CPU 
> power spare to stream the video to disk - I think it lightly compresses 
> it (losslessly IIRC) before writing, but you certainly want to 
> recompress it later to a standard format that takes less space.

It also costs money.

GameCam is supposed to do the same thing also, except that it doesn't 
work. (You press record, and nothing happens.)

>> I have no idea what kind of equipment you need to record a DVI signal 
>> though...
> 
> Given that my fairly recent PC can compress a 1920x1080 signal to h264 
> about 4x slower than realtime, I suspect you are talking about some 
> serious broadcast-quality kit to do that job at desktop resolutions and 
> frame rates.

Hmm, yes...

> Just point a video camera at the monitor :-)

Now why didn't I think of this? Heh. I even *have* a camera...

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Chambers wrote:
> Because the major selling points are style and a sense of superiority?

While true, that's not really the only advantage Apples have.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

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Darren New wrote:
> Chambers wrote:
>> Because the major selling points are style and a sense of superiority?
> 
> While true, that's not really the only advantage Apples have.

A sense of superiority is an advantage?

Damn, why aren't more people using Lisp then? :-P

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scott wrote:
> serious broadcast-quality kit to do that job at desktop resolutions and 
> frame rates.

Many cards for recording video have hardware chips to assist the h264 
process. That's how they records TV with like 2% CPU usage for compression.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

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Darren New wrote:
> Chambers wrote:
>> Because the major selling points are style and a sense of superiority?
> 
> While true, that's not really the only advantage Apples have.
> 

I said "major selling points," not "only selling points"?

...Chambers

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Invisible wrote:
> Actually, what *might* be useful is if I could hook up my computer to 
> another computer and record its output. (There are programs which are 
> supposed to record what's on your screen, but none of them actually 
> work.) I have no idea what kind of equipment you need to record a DVI 
> signal though...

Cost me $15, including shipping.  I got a pretty good deal, though; I 
think these usually go for $20 +shipping.

If you want one that will decrypt digital cable, then it costs about 
$250-$300.  That's probably because there's only one on the market at 
the moment (it has to accept a CableCard, a standard set by a consortium 
of US Cable companies).

However, there are others that can accept digital cable signals that 
aren't scrambled on the market for about $50.

Oh, and most of these cards do hardware MPEG encoding, so if you ask 
Media Center to record something, it doesn't eat very many CPU cycles.

...Chambers

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Invisible wrote:
> Actually, what *might* be useful is if I could hook up my computer to 
> another computer and record its output. (There are programs which are 
> supposed to record what's on your screen, but none of them actually 
> work.) I have no idea what kind of equipment you need to record a DVI 
> signal though...

Look up Hauppage.  They've got HDMI capture cards.

...Chambers

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Chambers wrote:
> Darren New wrote:
>> Chambers wrote:
>>> Because the major selling points are style and a sense of superiority?
>>
>> While true, that's not really the only advantage Apples have.
>>
> 
> I said "major selling points," not "only selling points"?
> 
> ...Chambers

Besides, style is something that actually can be worth paying for. 
Otherwise, nobody would buy a Porsche.

OK, that's not quite true; Porsche's have style *and* performance.  Now 
that Apple has switched to standard PC components, it's really easy to 
build a system that's equivalent but costs less, meaning the Macs only 
have style.

I think I'm rambling; I probably need some sleep ;)

...Chambers

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Chambers wrote:
> Look up Hauppage.  They've got HDMI capture cards.

Make sure you buy it from someplace you can return it to. I went through 
three before I just gave up.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

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Darren New wrote:
> Chambers wrote:
>> Look up Hauppage.  They've got HDMI capture cards.
> 
> Make sure you buy it from someplace you can return it to. I went through 
> three before I just gave up.
> 

Was it faulty cards, buggy software, or simply a case of them not quite 
doing what you thought they did?

...Chambers

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Chambers wrote:
> Darren New wrote:
>> Chambers wrote:
>>> Look up Hauppage.  They've got HDMI capture cards.
>>
>> Make sure you buy it from someplace you can return it to. I went 
>> through three before I just gave up.
>>
> 
> Was it faulty cards, buggy software, or simply a case of them not quite 
> doing what you thought they did?

Hard to say. The whole ecosystem is still a mess, really.

The first one would see the HDTV channels, but only with its own software. 
If I gave it to media center, it would see either SDTV or HDTV but wouldn't 
switch between.

The second actually came with a media center remote and said it works with 
media center, but would only pick up HDTV sometimes and SDTV never, and 
since half my channels are SDTV that was no good. Each time I tried 
installing it, something different would happen.

The third claimed it works with x64 but didn't actually have any drivers 
available, and I'm not about to start futzing with the registry to turn off 
driver signing to support a capture card.

I suspect part of the problem is that none of the cards out there are really 
ready to (a) talk to Vista media center and (b) deal with unencrypted HDTV 
over cable. Probably if I was using an antenna it might have worked better.

I understand the Win7 MC software is much better with HD tuners, tho. Maybe 
when I upgrade...

For now, everything I get HD I also get SD, so I can still record stuff if I 
want.

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   I ordered stamps from Zazzle that read "Place Stamp Here".

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Back in the days of rotary dial phones, I called a friend to help with a
computer problem. I set the phone in my lap while we worked and we got the
problem solved and hung up. Forgetting all about the phone in my lap, I
continued with my project. The phone rang, and I grabbed it immediately, out of
habit.
Unfortunately I grabbed it so fast I smashed myself in the face with it, almost
giving myself a black eye...


And speaking of geek fail, it took me three tries to post this...

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