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General Software Discussion / Re: How 4 Microsoft engineers proved that the “darknet” would defeat DRM
« on: December 03, 2012, 07:36 AM »
I have over 1000 DVDs.  Keeping track of them and storing them is becoming prohibitive.  And I have a living room TV and a TV in the man cave that I watch them on.  Add to that the fact that the kids watch on their computers sometimes, and my wife watches them in the bedroom, and having them in one place and accessing them over the network is just more convenient.  And I specifically have devices that I don't have to decode them with.  There's also no compression; I have them all in MP4 in a MKV container.  I'm still working on ripping them all... I've just about filled up 2TB and that's only a quarter of the collection.  But it just works for me.
-wraith808 (December 02, 2012, 10:30 PM)

I am also storing my DVD collection (much smaller than yours) in a 2 TB HDD.

Just curious, why don't you rip your DVDs and keep them in ISO format (like I do)?
If you convert them into mp4 format, you tend to loss quality, further more what about the DVD startup menu? Are you doing your own authoring work?

May I also ask this, what is the advantage of keeping a movie in mp4 format contained in a mkv file than directly keep it as mp4 file? (Isn't mp4 file sort of container by itself?)

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General Software Discussion / Re: How 4 Microsoft engineers proved that the “darknet” would defeat DRM
« on: December 02, 2012, 08:37 AM »
On the other hand, I am completely for offline storage. With hard drive prices going down, it is easier to download a file and store it than to rely on the cloud. I have almost completed ripping my 850 DVD collection to MP4 for storage on our media server. This will be complete once I am able to setup a Raid 1 array of about 4TB. Right now, I am stuck at 2TB on a single disk. Once I get a new enclosure, I will setup a Windows-based raid mirror (hardware raid is flaky unless you invest in a reliable controller, not those cheap promise boards).
-Josh (December 01, 2012, 06:28 AM)

Kind of OT, but... Have you looked at FreeNAS? Someone recommended it to me in another thread and it's been wonderful.
-Renegade (December 01, 2012, 06:31 AM)

@Josh - +1 w/Ren on FreeNAS. It's a great solution. Before you commit to using Windows, consider giving FreeNAS a try. It won't cost you anything other than your time to try it out. You may be surprised to find it's everything you need - plus a whole lot more.

Although I'm not too big on recommending RAID for most personal uses and/or skill levels, it does have it's place. And the software implementations of RAID running under the NIX environment have proven extremely reliable in my experience. And I do servers for a living. So I see a few more of them in operation than most people do.

Just my  :two:  :Thmbsup:
-40hz (December 01, 2012, 07:20 AM)

IMHO, it is not worth the trouble and risk to use RAID for video collection. (particularly RAID 1)

Normal setup of HDD is fast enough for video playing (even HD movie).
If you raid a pair of 2TB HDD, you risk to lost all 4TB video files when either one is down and that is all for the sake of performance gain that you hardly notice when openning a video file (not when playing it)

If you are talking about RAID 0, again a synchronizing  program which synchronizes between a pair of 2TB HDD periodically seems to be a better solution then RAID 0, because you can copy file to the HDD faster.

In brief, I find in unwise to use RAID 0/1 for a passive storage, like video collection.

58
General Software Discussion / Re: Pirate Software Dilemma
« on: December 02, 2012, 08:11 AM »
Now let's take Evernote.  Once had a snappy, portable version and everything.  Not anymore.  Think that pleased the hardcore users?  However, it sure benefits them to move to the cloud.  Not that the product is bad or anything, but the history of events made me lose my trust a little with them.  They also made it harder to get the data out of evernote and into other things.  So would I pay for it again?  probably not, unless my back was up against the wall.  And they should pay that price.  But they won't because I'm in the severe minority.
-superboyac (December 01, 2012, 11:31 PM)
OTT, but I think this is somewhat unfair on Evernote.
The company was taken over and the new owners explicitly rebuilt the software so it could work in the cloud. Looks like a good call, given the the increase in their userbase and the effective demise of many of their previous competitors who stayed as they were. And, unlike the previous owners who sold out, they aren't asking you to pay - they offer it entirely free unless you do want to use the cloud sync for more than 60MB a month.
And, if you want it entirely portable, you can go HERE. btw, Evernote don't recommend working it off a flash drive because of the risk of database corruption.
-Dormouse (December 02, 2012, 03:43 AM)

Until today, I am still using the last version of the old Evernote.
I did pay (one-month) to try the latest Evernote then I finally give up...

The new Evernote application
Pros:
1. Cloud means portable and more convenient
2. You can search within a Note after it is brought up for editing.

Cons:
Everything else not listed in the Pros list are basically downgraded, particularly the Tag hierarchy tree.

59
General Software Discussion / Re: Strategies to stay with Windows 7 as long as possible
« on: November 09, 2012, 08:36 AM »
Windows 7 won't become a rarity overnight, and Microsoft will surely fix windows 8 in SP1, just as it did with Vista every other version of Windows.
-eleman (November 08, 2012, 06:45 PM)

FTFY  8)

I've not known a version of Windows to be solid the first iteration yet.  It's just with some iterations, people forget it more than others.  ;D
-wraith808 (November 08, 2012, 08:50 PM)

+1 w/wraith - Three has always been the 'magic' number for Microsoft if their past history is anything to go by. Either Version 3 or Service Pack 3 - whichever came last.  :-\
-40hz (November 08, 2012, 11:33 PM)

MS history does have a pattern, see below and guess what is the ???

Win 98 (ticked)
win Me (skipped)
win XP  (ticked)
win Vista (skipped)
Win 7 (ticked)
Win8 (???)
Win9 (???)

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General Software Discussion / Re: Why is Software for Hardware Always Sucky?
« on: November 06, 2012, 04:48 PM »
I assume this is why desktop software is fancy looking, sleek to use, and full of bugs, while driver software is usually ugly, a pain to use, but generally doesn't blow up your machine ;D.
-Jibz (November 05, 2012, 08:18 AM)

Few days ago, I try to update my OCZ Agiity 3 SSD firmware. Very carefully I follow the instruction to be sure I will make no mistake but the update fails with no apparent reason... it ends up damaging my SSD (BIOS no more detects it).

Ugly bugger!

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