Episode 171: Homeland Security Seizes URLS! Skype for the Living Room, Lower Latency For Better Gaming, Eliminate Duplicate Audio Files [Discussion]

[serafina]

Google Earth Adds 80 Million 3D Trees. Find Linux Videogames. Black Friday Was a Success! What's the Best Sub-$1000 DSLR for Dark Rooms? Converting music files the right way!

Watch or download this episode here

[thelordtalon]

Did Veronica and Patrick have a planned blooper as part of the episode or was the teleprompter not working. Also thankfully no more audio video sync issues. Loved the outtakes. Can we please get the following:

Patrick destroying a computer (yes I've asked for this before)
HTPCs from this thread (on AVS Forum) benchmarked
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940972 on the HD nation segment

As for the video conferencing from tv I believe Media Portal (an XBMC offshoot specifically designed for windows) has this via a plugin though maybe that feature is not present anymore (I recall seeing it there but that could have changed).

[ghelyar]

Veronica-cam still looking terrible. Maybe even worse than last week. Purple/yellow finging, etc.




For the domain names, buying domain names solely for the purpose of selling them is illegal, but is not enforced. Note that this is different to being a domain registrar, which is legal. If you have a trademark you can pay an ICANN panel somewhere around $5000 last I checked (quite a while ago) to dispute it, and they will get you every TLD if I remember correctly. It sounds expensive, but I've gone to buy domains before with nothing on them and been told that it would cost me upwards of £15,000 so it's considerably cheaper. It's most commonly used by big corporations and celebrities.

If you're serious about getting domain names, http://www.safenames.net/ is quite a good place to go. They will get someone to manage your portfolio of domains and can probably broker you a good deal. I've also seen them get domains that weren't normally sold outside of their native country, etc. Having a buy link on there doesn't necessarily mean you will get it though, and they will take your money before you find that out. It happened to me twice. Once they returned it, once they didn't. They also asked me to fax ridiculous things for proof of identity (3 recent utility bills, front and back of credit card [wtf risky - put black paper in front of certain numbers] and that kind of thing)

The best solution I have found is to get a similar domain name though. Either get a different extension (.com.au, .co.uk, .net, etc) or change the domain to something else that isn't taken. For me, first@last.net is fine as an email address, I don't need it to be .com for a family name (obviously not .commercial)


P.S. the "Automatically parse links in text" on this board really sucks donkey balls, and keeps turning itself back on.

MS seems to only want to follow the copyright and patent rules when it is convenient for them. Though the rules do need to be changed, this is one place where the rules are right as is. Rules were written for a reason, but there is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law. If you can not win with either then scream very loud. Xbox hacking suit dropped!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If companies are willing to purchase electronics, then maybe they are not so worthless after all and maybe even reusable.

You do not have to go online to get good linux games. Doing a search of the Synaptic package manager for the word "game" elicited over 1000 thousand entries with everything from flight simulators to shoot-em-ups.Lots of fun educational programs also.

[frankiethewaffle]

For the question about duplicate files in iTunes.

I did that once, don't remember how I duped them. An easy way I used to delete the dupes was, I listed the files in the iTunes directory, changed the listing to "date modified." Chances are duplicates like that were all done at the same time. So they will all list together (2) and (3). Highlight and Delete.

Then refresh your iTunes list, or delete the whole thing and search for media in your directory folder again.

This was a Windows solution. Don't know if that matters. Also, If you do a lot of music stuff....I don't, and happened to be doing something at the time you duplicated the files. Either seek out any files without the (2) and (3)'s and save them or write them off and do it again.

[davmoo]

Fry's has 2TB hard drives on sale for $89.

Disney particularly annoys me with copyright. They've done quite well feeding at the public domain lunch counter (Snow White, Mother Goose stories, etc etc) but have yet to give back one single thing.

Originally Posted by ghelyar

Veronica-cam still looking terrible. Maybe even worse than last week. Purple/yellow finging, etc.

I thought this was just me because I blow the show up to full screen on a 46-inch TV. Obviously not. The fringing was especially bad in the closeups of Bearonica.

Originally Posted by davisan

Though the rules do need to be changed, this is one place where the rules are right as is.

You can be either in favor of changing copyright and patent laws, or you can be anti-Microsoft. You can't be both.

And Apple and Google are every bit as hard-ass on copyright as Microsoft is.

Oh, forgot to mention something else about the show...

I have to disagree with Patrick on part of the domain name question. In this particular instance I think the guy should keep his last name hidden until a deal is reached. Letting his last name be known from the start will tip his hand as to why he wants the domain, and the current owner will thus raise the price.

[ghelyar]

Microsoft probably isn't a good example for legal issues either. They seem to be the only software company that has problems with antitrust/monopoly. Mac users frequently say that Mac comes with a lot of software, an IM client is built right into GNOME now, Google is eating up everything on the Internet, etc but Microsoft can't put any new things, even simple ones, in their operating system any more for fear of lawsuits. I mean, come on. Browsers? IM clients? Does anyone remember the days of "Windows 3.1, now with Write and Paint for free"?

Back then when the gui/wysiwyg was still young, everyone was suing each other over the interface. In fact Microsoft was suing Digital Research about Gem for allegedly copying their interface. Gem came with more features than Microsoft Windows. Seems nothing has changed. Even if the law it was the way it should be, Microsoft might till be in the wrong. It is a shame the U, S. Supreme court did not do the right thing with Bilski, or a lot of the issues would already be moot.

[davidbix]

Another music ripping/encoding segment where nobody mentions variable bitrate encoding?

[biokinetica]

...did you guys use the dropbox logo for the "archive" button at the bottom of the app?