"to outlaw general purpose computers"

[Sunder]

The decompression function could be integrated into the videocard
relieving that CPU burden.   Playback is not problematic.

In fact, I recall seeing MPEG decoder cards back in the early days
of DVD ROM's.

Regardless of this ungreatful Choatism whereby we get off the topic of
just how useless or useful old computers are, while we can certainly use
the old fuckers, the question of upgrading has always been: Does it do
what you want?  If the answer is no, then you upgrade.

Sure, you can revive old hardware with Linux, but you'll find it runs KDE
3.0 or GNOME slower than windows 95 did on the same hardware.  So unless
you're willing to also go to older software (or at least less demanding
software) you've still got a useless machine.

OTOH, if it does work well enough, and you don't care for swapping memos
in Micro$loth Word V283.23 with cow-orkers or don't care about watching
the latest 3d movie on XVD disks, then by all means, if you don't mind the
huge power consumption, use that old iron.

Personally, I do have 8 and 9 year old hardware and find it glacially
slow.  While surfing the web with an old Sun Voyager running a whopping
40MHz SPARC V7 is a bit slow, it's fast enough to get the morning news and
weather report as I drink my coffee.  Sure, that old IBM Thinkpad 365x
with a flying fast Pentium 100 (no that's not P3 or P4, or even P2, plain
ol'e Pentium 1) and 48mb of ram running windblows 95 sucks for most
things, it makes a fine MP3 player for my living room, once nice speakers
are attached, and so on and so forth.

As for the Lisa, I haven't powered up that beastie in years.  But, yes, I
could run LisaWrite and print just fine on dot matrix paper off the lovely
ImageWriter II printer.  Uh huh... I'm sure that such a printout would
make a fine resume.  Care to wager on whether such a printed resume would
even render an interview?

No boys and girls, it's the boiling the frog scenario.  If you try to boil
a live frog in an pot at high heat, the frog will jump out.  If you cover
the pot, well the pot will boil over.  So instead, you don't turn the heat
on high.  Rather you keep the heat low, very low, and as the temperature
rises notch by notch, the frog doesn't notice.  By the time the water is
hot, the frog is already dead.  

Guess who the frog is?


Same here.  Example:

Want to view DVD's, you gotta buy a DVD player or DVDROM for your PC.  
But wait, now you can't watch DVD's you've legally purchased in England
because by contract all DVD players are region specific!  Worse yet, if
you happen to have an old TV that doesn't support RCA in and your DVD
player doesn't have a COAX connection... you can't connect your DVD player
through your VCR, because, guess what, DVD players are bound by contract
to scramble their output with Macrovision and your VCR of course honors
this, so you can't watch DVD's you've purchased in the USA if you have an
old TV!

Never mind that pirates don't even need DeCSS to clone DVD's.  Never mind
that there are plenty of MacroVision remover boxes out there sold as
picture enhancers.  Never mind that none of these things prevent pirates
from copying DVD's.  Never mind that there are "illegal" region free DVD
players out there without Macrovision protection, etc...  No, the whole
point is a legal one brought to you by our friends at the DMCA.  Where a
movie isn't a movie, but a "video device..." right...  So long to your
"Fair Use" right to make a backup copy.  Tough titties if your 3 year old
thought the DVD would be cleaner if washed with sand paper.  You're out
the $30 you've paid for "The Matrix III - Trinity Does Dallas"

So extrapolate, and you'll know what to expect when Palladium and it's ilk
show up.  

Want to watch the next version of what will be DVD? You get a big brother
inside chip.  So it goes.  Want to run Micro$haft Orifice 3003 1/2?  
Gotta have the TCPMA chip in your Pee Cee.. wait, scratch that, you won't
have admin rights on that PC, so it's really "our PC."  And that copy you
bought, nope, not yours either, you were only sold a "license" to use it.  
Part of that license says they can install whatever they want on
your^H^H^H^H^H our PC?  Including back doors?  Including spyware?  
Including marketing gathering information?  Yup.  You grabs your ankles
and you spreads your cheeks.

Or, you just vote with your wallet.  Do you really need Orifice 3003 1/2?
Does your current Pee Cee work just fine?  Great, keep using it.  Need to
print a 3d resume in color on holographic paper?  Cough up $80 at Harbucks
and pay for a crappachino grande and 30 minutes of MicroSoft time and type
up your new resume.  

Or go the Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD route and raise that middle
finger up proudly.  Will you be able to do just as much?  Probably.  But,
oh wait, we forgot, Uncle Sam has padded his wallet from the likes of the
MPAA, RIAA and that new rule about how no Pee Cee without a big brother
chip inside cannot be sold...  Too bad, that.  I guess Jack Vallenti
wanted to close "The Open Source loophole."  Nevermind that there are
perfectly legal uses for linux enabled machines, but "we must close the
open source hole - or they'll compile their own software!"

But wait, what was I thinking, you can't even pay $80, because by now if
you don't have a Microsoft Passport, you don't have a Micro$haft Visa
Social Security Implant(tm).  You don't exist!


Yes, you're right; probably it will never get that far.


Then again, we also thought that only congress could declare war, that
people captured on a battle field carring weapons and shooting at our
soldiers were POW's.  We also thought that in the USA any person arrested
and suspected of a crime was entitled to a lawyer, and a trial, but
defining a new class of criminal called "terrorist" who have no right to
even talk to a lawyer of family and don't have to be charged with a crime,
and go before a military sham tribunal.


----------------------Kaos-Keraunos-Kybernetos---------------------------
 + ^ + :Surveillance cameras|Passwords are like underwear. You don't /|\
  \|/  :aren't security.  A |share them, you don't hang them on your/\|/\
<--*-->:camera won't stop a |monitor, or under your keyboard, you   \/|\/
  /|\  :masked killer, but  |don't email them, or put them on a web  \|/
 + v + :will violate privacy|site, and you must change them very often.
--------_sunder_ at _sunder_._net_------- http://www.sunder.net ------------

On Tue, 2 Jul 2002, Major Variola (ret) wrote:

> At 05:19 PM 7/2/02 -0400, Jack Lloyd wrote:
> > Real time video still requires
> >something fairly high end, but give it a year.
> 
> The compression function could be integrated into the videocamera,
> relieving that CPU burden.   Playback is more problematic.