We've all been bit by the Cable Companies at one point or another. Lately, it seems to revolve around DRM, TV over Internet, etc.  I'm no fool, I understand everything they're doing, yet I do not agree.

They used to have the only major pipeline for TV into people's home. This is changing:

1. Now people are receiving HD broadcasts over the air (cables' customers who tune into only primetime shows, this is a threat)
2. People are using the internet connection through the Cable Company to obtain LEGAL internet TV. Netflix, Hulu, YouTube all provide fantastic and easy resources to bypass live TV

Somewhat recently, Comcast put a 250GB monthly cap on internet connections. Why would they do this? Naturally for reason #2 listed above. This is still opinion and speculation on my part. Many others agree, others have alternative ideas (mostly revolving around the companies beening ran by zombie devils or something). It comes down them not wanting to change, and force customers down a certain path. this lack of innovation will be their doom.

TV Studios created sites like Hulu and their corp sites to host shows. WHOA! That is a huge sidestep to cable companies! So now the customers and tv companies are both upset with cable companies? Instead of innovating and finding alternative solutions, companies like Comcast are sticking to their positions and solidifying by imposing limits on how much you can download. I've never hit the 250 GB limit, but someday I might with the way things are going!

Comcast said they imposed the limit to stop the few from abusing the service. This is BS. If you were getting so overloaded, why was it that months later you double all of our internet speeds and now offer up to 50mbps? Guess you have the capacity to handle it all, don't you?

Most customers will pass this off as "the limit will not affect me" and "well, whatever, now my speeds are faster!!!".  Screw that, they jacked the speeds up ONLY after they were getting speed competition from Verizon FIOS and AT&T U-Verse. This was done to keep their current customers and to keep the eyes of their customers covered.

I'm sounding like a ranting liberal who hates "the man", but I hate being treated like a moron. I am not. I do not know everything, but I damn well know when I'm being played.

Here is what Comcast and others should do to innovate:

1. They support different channel packages via CableCard. If you pay for HBO, "zap" and now you have HBO. Stop paying your bill "zap!!", all premium channels are gone.  I should be able to go through a checklist and be able to add/remove any channel that I want to. I'd love to get rid of Oxygen and replace it with ESPN7. This offers a fantastic option to customers with a system you already have in place
   
2. You need to go all in on this CableCard fiasco. You're really starting to piss off your average joe of a customer. Why should your Motorola Comcast box with a CableCard get all the channels and On-Demand while my Tivo/Vista Media Center with a Cable Card can only get most channels and no On-Demand? Don't tell me that it's hard to innovate. You need to kick your CableLabs in the butt and have it be much more helpful to 3rd party OEMs. I'm still waiting for my freaking SDV adapter for my ATI Digital Tuners. It is certainly an issue that needs to be worked on by Microsoft/ATI in addition to CableLabs, but don't you think it would go much more smoothly if CableLabs was actively assisting and cared? It has been deemed illegal to force people to use your cable boxes. You're working on borrowed time while Tru2Way is deployed. You'd better be more freaking friendly before everyone has an easy option to ditch your box.
3. Some cable companies are offering video on demand watch shows. But once again, I need your box to get that! But all in all, it's still not ABC/NBC/CBS/FOX,etc's raw show programming offerings. You're offering yet again another proprietary system to add another ball an chain to your customers. Make a system similar to Netflix that allows your TV customers to access it. Maybe even sell the internet only version to people! I'm already paying for netflix to watch TV and movies, why would I be opposed to paying for it?
   

Just got some new Nextel firmware for my Nextel i335

From the read me
Upgrade i335 software to version R7F.00.04
- Upgrade codeplug to version 6A.04.01
- Upgrade flashstrap to version FS7fv00.24
- Upgrade CSD to version CXX.06.14 based on the service provider.
- Upgrade font pack to version 7F.00.07.00
- Upgrade French/Spanish/Portuguese/Arabic/Hebrew language pack to version 7F.00.30.02
- Upgrade carrier pack to version 7F.00.09.00
- Upgrade theme pack to version 7F.00.08.00 but Sprint, So Linc, Asia Generic, Brazil, Telus, MIRS, KTP Korea, Peru, PTC Saudi, Mexico to 7F.00.08.01 and Boost to 7F.00.08.04
- If the user chooses to upgrade phone with default java applications, restores the default java applications (the user must manually delete any previous java applications).

Sprint summarizes the changes as: Addresses issues with HTTP, TCP, and neighbor cell list not being updated

Naturally, I haven't noticed any difference after the upgrade, but I like higher numbers.

I did attempt to do the depot install to not install the default java apps, but they're still there. Maybe they're from the previous install. I just wanted them gone without having to manually "deinstall"ing them

 




edit: added moto link to firmware
Edit: March 15, 2010, added changes as detailed by Sprint

I'm done making modifications to peterf.net. I will no longer be upgrading the blog or instituting anymore applications. I will continue my normal bloggings to the interwebs, and will resume my other nerdy online duties as soon as I acquire real hosting. F' shared hosting. I need my IIS admin control back.

Edit: Turns out the next version of this blog software includes support for openID. Naturally that involves network connections sever side. My shared hosting doesn't allow any modification of the trust level, so everything explodes. Ugh!

Two things here: Amazon mixes porn with normal movie releases and there is porn on BD? See images below.  The 2nd image shows Pirates 2 mixed in with a search that delivers new BD releases. The last image is a search for Pirates. I can picture it now,"Mommy!! I want Pirates of the Caribbean!!"...............

Now I did notice that Pirates [I] was labeled R, but wouldn't you think that anything that is blatantly porn cut down to an R rating should be filed differently?  Pirates 2 doesn't seem to show a rating.

Chris, a frequenter of useful information like this tipped Amazon to see what their opinion on this was. They forwarded him off to another department. No response as of yet.

I've been programming for many years. I'm pretty good, but I'm no fool to think I am the best. One thing that has annoyed me was developers' blatant disregard for web standards. They keep throwing in <div> <center <p> in random places, refreshing the page to see how it looks, and saying "job done" when it looks the way they want. I still make little goofy mistakes like leaving an "&" without converting it to "&amp;", but that's the worst it should get.

I've adopted XHTML 1.1 for almost all of my sites* and decided to test it in IE8 RC1. One of my sites is http://www.newlenoxesda.net/. You can see the original site here that makes IE8 offer/recommend compatibility view. I loaded her up in IE8 and I got this cute little button telling me the site may not be compatible with IE8.




A few different angles here: IE 8 should be compatible with XHTML1.1 and therefore it should automatically know that a site listed as XHTML1.1 is IE8 compatible. Microsoft requires developers to add a meta tag to say the site is IE8 compatible. WHAAT? YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME. I'm not a fan of the caps parade, but this is a insane. I thought we all were making progress by creating open standards and accepting other open standards? Why the hell should I have to worry about one more ****** browser I have to program for specifically? What about IE9? Will I need to have another tag for this? God help us if Firefox, Opera, and Safari decide they want to create a new version that wants a specific meta tag. I had to add Microsoft's recommendation/fix "<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE8" />" to make IE8 stop complaining.

There are still some pros to the compatibility view, but to force something proprietary like this is a bit disturbing. I'd be a fan of this if the IE8 engine was generating many errors, and THEN recommended the compatibility view.



*confession, my blog is not an example of this. I pay for shared hosting right now and it was the best choice

Intel has a program for retail employees to "train" on their products, earn points, and get steep discounts on Intel products.

It was was to get this in the mail today. RIP 3167

Engadget gave me the news a few minutes ago. This time the DTV delay has gone through the Senate AND the House, waiting for Obama to sign now. We all know he will (short of a terrorist attack using CIP device threatening to cause an attack if he goes through with the DTV delay). A similar bill failed in the House recently.  I'm not going to rant again, but this is depressing and annoying. This is not the change I didn't vote for.

This will be short and sweet. I have a CableCard Media Center I've blogged in anger on PeterF.net before about CableCard DRM. Windows Vista and 7 use OS specific DRM. This means I cannot share my recorded TV shows between the two operating systems, eventhough they're on the same harddrive on the same computer. Just to clarify, we're talking about 1 TB of TV. Watching live TV is reserved for football/baseball games only.

Windows 7 is so amazing that I'm using it on my laptop as my primary operating system. I don't even have a problem with data migration. So thanks MS for making me (and many others) love your new product, but screw you for accepting horrendous DRM that makes me wait for the final release to make the jump on my Media Center.

 

I'm going to lose tv when Windows 7 comes out. Also, I do not believe an upgrade install willl work. Typically the DRM is broken and killed when you run the media center setup. Especially on a new OS. I just don't plan on testing that!

I talked about this a little while back, but hoped I was wrong. What is very sad, was they were unable to avoid closing. I do not pretend to understand all the business intergoings, but if you see a downward trend, start closing stores to get some cash, don't act surprised when the feds bankruptcy date you got you goes and passes. You had many interested parties over the past few years, and the best you could do was self liquidate? Screw you. This is the voice of a pissed off consumer and a former employee.

I'll be honest here: screw Best Buy. I'd rather go to Office Max for a local retail store.  I'd rather not go into store like Best Buy and have to coach myself to not get angry when I have to ask for help, or get talked down to when I finally get it.

When I installed/sold services at Circuit City, I explained what they were, so no one would come back complaining that they could get AVG for free. I constantly hear about people from best buy who were sold Spysweeper, Norton and other crap and do not know what was installed or why. Maybe this happens are other Circuit Citys, or less in some Best Buys, but this honesty was encouraged where I worked. Honesty over boasting a flamboyant beetle. Seriously, few straight men drive them. They come in fruity colors for a reason. BTW, people wear ties to work to look professional. Wearing them in a mocking manner to look semi professional in a High School girl's eyes, is stupid.

Yes this is blatent rant. But this is my last chance to do this before I go NewEgg vs BestBuy which will be a much easier argument.

Engadget reported that the House did not reach enough votes to pass the bill that was approved by the Senate. Personally, I think this is fantastic. Obama wanted to delay this originally. It shows that there is some sense between the Congress and President Obama.  By some, I mean the 168 who voted negative in the House.

"But Peter!!! What about the poor people who can't afford to get a converter box?" My response: they're shit out of luck. The money that was handed out originally was a dumb idea, and it's still a dumb idea after they ran out of money. We're not talking about power, water, food supply, etc. We're talking about catching up on Heroes before the season starts back up. Not worth using tax dollars to help anyone.  I stand corrected, the money doesn't come from taxes. I still think it could have gone to better use. Like highways, debt, bigger guns, etc.

And if we're so concerned about the economy, wouldn't it make sense to keep the transition date and force people to upgrade? How about this for a sales pitch? "You can buy this converter box which is sooo clunky, or you can buy this new HDTV!!!"