I was one. Mine is a ps3 fat, and running linux was my second goal after making it a media server. Then they removed 'other os' I bitched back then on slashdot too, refused to update my ps3 untill the day came that netflix wouldn't let me cheat my way past the 'you must update' window.

fuck sony.

Never, ever, again.

I did build a home pc as a media viewer, but had problems getting my damn 42" toshiba screen to display correctly. It has 'weird' requirements to display a 1080p signal.

after that, I bought a ps3, to be my media machine, play blue ray, and run linux. Obviously netflix wasn't around when I first got it, but it quickly became the 'killer app' for me.

I will never buy a device that I can't install my own os of choice, and I'll never buy another sony device as long as I live.

jaz

PSN is required to use Netflix, So, yes, it is required to 'use' the PS3.

I don't game, and didn't buy the ps3 to game. I bought it to act as a media viewer. Not being able to watch netflix on my bigscreen is a huge problem. I had to agree to the new TOS or the netflx app wouldn't connect.

I'd sign onto this class action, you bet.

  I'll never buy a sony product again.

jaz

Unfortunately, I cannot cite any sources, because of when I found this out (mid eighties.) It was either in the forward to crystal singer (unlikely, or else others would know this) or it was an interview in twilight zone, analog, omni, or some other sci-fi magazine of the era.

I remember being amazed, and thinking how much the cover art looked like Pat Benatar, wondering if it was an intentional clue.
Like you, I was classically trained, (piano) so this along with the halls of pern series strongly resonated with me.

That's all I got, sorry guys. If anyone can verify/disprove this, that'd be cool.

I'm sure someone has already said this, but

Crystal Singer was inspired by Pat Benatar, who was trained in opera, but was told by a teacher that the burr in her voice would keep her from being a world class opera singer.......

Man, I loved Crystal Singer.

the Pern stuff was fun, but Crystal Singer was always my favorite.

jaz

piezo counts, as do electrostatic, magnetic planer, plasma, horns, etc etc.

all are loudspeakers, or transducers. the question does not specify WHAT type of loudspeaker.

I too am an apple hater from the linux camp, but I also have to agree. I love my ipod classic (fuck Itunes, it's hacked with a linux kernel, but virtually the exact same UI) and I did enjoy my iphone before the android phones surpassed apple.

Sorry to see you go Steve, I have used just about every computer type you ever made, and every os you made. I may hate what apple has become, but boy oh boy! what the Fuck would the computer world have been like without you?

jaz

Way, way back in the windows 3.1 days, I used two shareware applications, one was called big windows, (it was 4 virtual desktops) and the other was a right click program manager menu that worked anywhere on the desktop. They were THE killer apps for windows.

I used those on 95, 95 se, 98, and they didn't work on win 2k. I searched and searched and searched, and always found something that gave me the same functionality. I always auto-hid my start menu on windows, and in linux I have two menus top and bottom of screen, and they both are autohide.

Now that I've been a linux only camp for over ten years, XFCE4 does both these exact things perfectly. IOW, microsoft can screw up their system all they want. Me? I've still got my multiple desktops for organizing running applications, and right click anywhere menu.

Oh yeah, OS X sucks floppy donkey balls. I hate the 'dock'
ubuntu sucks shrunken monkey balls
Gnome bites my hairy ass. Why oh why would i want to stupidify my desktop like gnome seems intent on doing?
ribbon looks crappy, but I have no direct experiance with it so . . .

jaz

dunno where you are, but in Nevada, all the millenium films (Girl with the dragon tatoo;played with fire;kicked the hornets nest) were in swedish, with english subtitiles streamed through my ps3.

I agree I wish more anime was in japanese with subtitles, there's something about the original language, that a lot more emotion carrys through then english dubs.

odd.

jaz

Haha! I've been using XFCE as my desktop environment for years and years, and for the same reasons, kde became to big, gnome stupidified the desktop to the point I couldn't do WHAT I WANT with my own desktop.

XFCE4 for the win!

jaz

because there isn't a portable music player available that can carry enough space to contain my entire music collection, (4 TB) 99.999% of which I personally bought.

I own one apple device, the ipod classic because it is the largest format device, and it is 120 Gig, which is 1/3d of my music collection converted to mp3's.

You (or someone else) may say 'why do you need all that music' but the answer to that is obvious.

My android phone is perfectly capable of being my music playing device, ( i use pandora and pay each year) why can't I stream my own music from a 'cloud' server? I mean, I could get of my lazy ass and set up a streaming server from home, but that's a pita. It would be so much easier to use google music. That sure is a lot easier then carrying TWO devices that can play music.

P.S. Google, make a goddamn app that runs under debian, so I dont' have to use a windows VM to upload my music.

Thanks.

RE; the lord of the rings trilogy.

First off, I did enjoy them, especially the extended versions,however.

As you previously stated, they left out Tom Bombadil (understandable, but still sad)
which required them leaving out the barrow wights,and how the sword pippin uses injures the witch king of angmar;
    also screws up old man willow pretty good vs the book.

I understood, but regret the removal/merging of Glorfindal and Arwen.

The whole fuck up about Faramir taking frodo, instead of re the book, realizing how important what he(Frodo) is doing is vs his (Faramirs) desire to please his father, again weakining Faramirs 'Charactor' Vs Boromirs 'Charactor'

The MAJOR (IMO) leaving out the Scouring of the shire, which is the whole point of the entire quest, showing how these four hobbits have matured into truly great people, vs how self centered and selfish they were at the beginning. (also gives meaning to the whole farmer maggots crops section)
  the murder of saruman on Orthanc instead of in the shire,
the 'enlightenment' frodo has acheived by the end of the story whereas he doesn't condone any killing, no matter how justified.

Those are off the top of my head, but as I said I did enjoy the films no matter how badly they mangled parts of the story.

Oh, Yeah.

finally updated my server from lenny to squeeze. Nice work Debian! I run sid on my workstations/netbooks/laptops, but stable is my server and 'friends' computer installs.

The new website is nice. Clean, simple.

XFCE for the win.

jaz

You are joking right?(OP) I'm using debian, and I routinely copy TB(s) of data from hard drive to hard drive via SATA and/or USB 2.0, and though the usb tramsfer speed is fairly slow, my system doesn't slow appreciably at all.

Weird, I've been using Linux for 10 years now, and one thing linux does really well is move large amounts of data around without killing the system (useability).

Lotsa ram is your freind, also make sure your / filesystem isn't the hdd that you're moving the data from/to or vice-versa. That does slow access down a bit.

jaz

The more awesome thing is, they (the stupid designers) made a similar mistake with the PRADA store front in the mall called Crystal in City Center, it is a black wall with recessed lenses, and PARABOLIC REFLECTORS behind the lenses. Did I mention the walls face east and south? The parabolic reflectors were made of plastic, and it was discovered, quite rapidly, that they (the plastic reflectors) melt rapidly and/or catch items on fire upon being exposed to sunlight. I've got video of a dumpster full of them burning. I know this because I just finished spending a month replacing said plastic domes with metal ones. expect fires.

jaz