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The Magpie Developer
Jeff Atwood is one of the best programmer/writers around. I love reading his stuff, some I agree wholeheartedly with, other stuff we disagree, but this post is about a dead-on as they come. This idea has been floating in my head for a long time, but it is hard for me to conceptualize it in words, Atwood does a brilliant job at it. Must read for any developer. |
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Andy Olmsted's Last Blog Entry.
(Warning: Pretty rough) No matter how you feel politically about the war, this reminds you that each number people throw around as statistics is a human life. This is extremely well written, and pretty rough on your soul towards the end, but something everyone should read. Its a shitty situation all around, but there is always a human face behind the statistics and I want to make sure I never forget that. |
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Drinking stories that put yours to shame
Via Keith
To preserve his body during the voyage home, the second-in-command stored Nelson's body in the ship's vat of rum and halted all liquor rations to the crew. Not a bad idea, but when the ship reached port, officials went to retrieve Nelson's body and found the vat dry.
Disregarding good taste (in every sense), the crew had been secretly drinking from it the entire way home. After that, naval rum was referred to as Nelson's Blood. |
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making vodka pills in 24 hours
Recently, Chef Fabian was experimenting further with the Adria/Torreblanca technique of making 'vodka pills.' I use this word to describe the process of making liquid-filled candies by pouring flavored alcohol syrups into cornstarch and letting it set until a hard outer shell forms. |
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Strategy Letter VI - joelonsoftware.com
As a programmer, thanks to plummeting memory prices, and CPU speeds doubling every year, you had a choice. You could spend six months rewriting your inner loops in Assembler, or take six months off to play drums in a rock and roll band, and in either case, your program would run faster. Assembler programmers don’t have groupies.
Entire Article is Dead On. A must read for anyone in the software biz. |
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(Thursday, September 21)
Microsoft, I thought the goal was to make this easier for everyone....
Backing up and restoring licenses
Windows Media Player 11 does not permit you to back up your media usage rights (previously known as licenses). However, depending upon where your protected files came from, you might be able to restore your rights over the Internet.
Yesh. Come on Microsoft, that isnt going to work for average Joe that you hope will will purchase music via Windows Media Center (who in most cases doesnt even backup his music). So now, even if he DOES backup the music he purchased, he might not be able to restore his rights to play his song, he purchased? That won't work.
Cannot play back recorded TV that is protected with media usage rights in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 after 3 days
Recorded TV shows that are protected with media usage rights, such as some TV content recorded on premium channels, will not play back after 3 days when Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 for Windows XP is installed on Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005. No known workaround to resolve this issue exists at this time.
Even Worse decision. So if I go on vacation for a week leaving on Sat and returning the following Sat and sit down to my new sparkling Vista system I can't watch Monday Night Football I recorded if they have this certain flag? That isn't going to fly with me either. I thought you guys wanted to make this whole collaboration with 'Microsoft in the Home' easier for all of us?
The Zune looked tempting, but if my HD crashes and I have to resort to my backup and I can't get a new licence for the music I have purchased then don't worry, I won't be buying one.
If I can't be guaranteed to be able to see the shows I Tivo (I don't care about burning them to dvd, or passing them around the net, I just want to WATCH them, you know like, the main reason for the DVR in the first place!) then forget using Vista for the Media Center. It renders it useless. I don't want a 3 day window.
Honestly, I love my x360 and I was really excited in brainstorming all the cool ways the Zune could be used in coordination with the x360 and xbl. I was also really pumped about when Vista ships being able to record shows on the computer then pumping them out to the x360 to watch on the TV. All that seems like a moot point if I have to watch them within 3 days of them being recorded before they are "magically" locked.
Lame.
I have 2 different music services I use. I use iTunes to get most of my music now. I don't like DRM but Apples DRM is no big deal to me. I burn a physical copy of each CD I buy and I have it to do whatever I want with it, it is just like I bought it a the store. No worries. If that ever disappeared I would drop iTunes like a rock.
I also use Urge. Urge is very different in that I never really "have" a copy of the music to burn, but I am ok with that. For $10 a month I can listen to a pretty wide array of music on my laptop (my laptop only) but I listen to it a lot at work, and I am ok with not being able to burn CDs. and I know when I cancel my account all the music is gone. No worries I understand that up front.
But with WMP 11 and the 3 day rule on the DVR, I won't be going for that. Thanks for hindering the move to IPTV.
Release Notes for Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP
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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent my employer's view in anyway.
© Copyright 2003-2007, Eric Thompson |
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