This is a time of celebration, so sit still and be quiet.

Snyder ,'Chosen'


Buffistechnology 3: "Press Some Buttons, See What Happens."

Got a question about technology? Ask it here. Discussion of hardware, software, TiVos, multi-region DVDs, Windows, Macs, LINUX, hand-helds, iPods, anything tech related. Better than any helpdesk!


§ ita § - May 22, 2009 11:45:25 am PDT #10077 of 25501
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Some interesting choices in Spike TV's 6 doomed technology list. I disagree with the Blu Ray demise, at least partially because the way they spell it, it accompanies the demise of the special feature--streaming movies don't come with commentaries and making of, as much as I like the Netflix functionality.

I'm also surprised by the hybrid car choice.


sarameg - May 22, 2009 12:26:15 pm PDT #10078 of 25501

Also, with the possible demise of UDO, Blu Ray may end up being the media of choice for back up storage. I'm kinda pulling this out of my ass from conversations around the halls. All I know is we moved to UDO, and then Plasmon declared bankruptcy and we're having a doozy of a time getting support.


Gudanov - May 22, 2009 12:45:28 pm PDT #10079 of 25501
Coding and Sleeping

The Kindle - I don't think so. A good, inexpensive e-ink reader would be loads better than reading on a netbook or phone. I think the Kindle is imperfect in the way that early adopter technology is.

Sat. Radio - It has always been in trouble for a reason. I agree.

3D Television - Having to put on glasses to watch TV is never going to mainstream. I agree.

Streaming Video Games - I don't see how you get past lag and with ISPs talking bandwidth caps I don't see this happening. Incidentally, I think they are wrong about PCs. With games going cross-platform you don't need expensive hardware for PC games anymore. If the game is coming out for 360, then it's going to look good on a PC with modest video hardware. If you want to run with a bunch of effects the consoles can't do at resolutions that are way beyond a console, then you'll need that pricey hardware. But to just look as good as a console, NSM. I agree.

Blu-Ray - I gotta agree overall, digital delivery is the way of the future. I think Blu-Ray videos are going to be around, but it will be a niche market rather than being pervasive like DVDs. I do think Blu-Ray will be around as a storage medium. I agree for the most part.

Hybrid Cars - I don't really agree. I think we'll see Hybrids morph into extended range electric cars as battery technology improves.


§ ita § - May 22, 2009 12:54:19 pm PDT #10080 of 25501
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Plasmon's gone? Man, I've been out of the content management loop forever, it feels.


sarameg - May 22, 2009 1:31:58 pm PDT #10081 of 25501

Declared bankruptcy, went looking for a buyer, got bought for a song by a smallish company in CO. They started hiring all the Plasmon people. Old service contracts were terminated, had to buy new ones. Long term prognosis is fuzzy. [link]


Typo Boy - May 22, 2009 4:10:48 pm PDT #10082 of 25501
Calli: My people have a saying. A man who trusts can never be betrayed, only mistaken.Avon: Life expectancy among your people must be extremely short.

I think Hybrids will morph into plugin hybrids. As batteries come down, they will still be too expensive to make cars with 200+ mile ranges. So they will make cars that can travel between 60 to 100 miles on the battery. That will take care of most peoples driving most days (though not all). So most days most people plug in their car at night charging it while they sleep (like a cell phone). Traveling farther than your electric charge will carry you? Stop i a gas station and fill up the gas tank. In the beginning these will be limited to people with assigned parking or carports or garages where they can install dryer plugs. IF they become popular, eventually street parking will have charging meters that accept credit/debit cards.


Polter-Cow - May 22, 2009 4:39:07 pm PDT #10083 of 25501
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

Aha, duh, I have Windows XP Media Center Edition. And the fact that SFC asks for a "Pro CD2" is a weird bug. I wonder if there's a way to get Media Center discs. The XP Pro and XP Pro SP2 discs didn't work. There's supposed to be a registry hack you can do to make SFC look somewhere else (where you copy the I386 folder from the disc), but I'm not sure how different the DLL files are in the editions. I compared the ones on the XP Pro disc to what's in my WindowsI386 folder, and several are different sizes. So I don't know if it will cause even more problems if I let SFC use those files to replace whatever it's found.

Strangely enough, I checked Event Viewer and found the application errors for Paint and IrfanViewer...and they were both for libmplayer.dll. But when I searched for that file, it was only present in some codec folders; it's an ffdshow file. It's not in I386 with the other Windows DLL files (and thus wouldn't be on an XP disc). I don't know why they'd be using that file. The Outlook Express error and Explorer error didn't show up in Event Viewer, so I couldn't confirm that it's all the same DLL. This is so weird. But SFC has found five DLL files it wants to replace. I wish it would just tell me what they were! And where to frakking get them.

Right now I'm just dealing and adapting because everything else works fine until I find another program that's affected. This computer will be three years old this fall, so maybe it's time to get a new one anyway.

MOTHERFUCK. Now if I try to open a Windows Media Player file or even open the program, I get this error:

The file wmp.dll has a version number of 10.0.0.3646 where 10.0.0.4058 was expected.

Windows Media Player is not installed properly and must be reinstalled.

I wonder if SFC incorrectly replaced that file because WMP was working fine a few days ago. GAH. At least that problem may be fixed if I just reinstall. I don't like WMP 11, though, but I think I can just install that correctly and then roll it back a version easily.


Connie Neil - May 22, 2009 6:59:41 pm PDT #10084 of 25501
brillig

Media Center is weird. The program I work with isn't supported on Media Center because of problems with SQL.


NoiseDesign - May 22, 2009 8:23:27 pm PDT #10085 of 25501
Our wings are not tired

Best option is dust off and nuke it from orbit. Seriously.


Polter-Cow - May 22, 2009 8:29:48 pm PDT #10086 of 25501
What else besides ramen can you scoop? YOU CAN SCOOP THIS WORLD FROM DARKNESS!

I can't deal with that kind of stress right now! Of course, I don't think there's ever a good time for that sort of thing.