What does the Fox say?

[MA_PE]

Fox:

Do you know anything about this system?

Is it one cable wire to the TiVo box which then acts like a router to other TVs?

Do I need a HD TV or is just a HD monitor with a HDMI input all that's needed...i.e. I don't need a tuner for the TV.

I currently have a single HDTV with cable/DVR box.  I wanted to add a DVR to a new HDTV and the sales guy talked me into this.

Thoughts?

http://www.rcn.com/boston/digital-cable-tv/equipment/tivo-whole-home-bundle/

 

[csb]

My GS5 is crap since the OS upgraded. How do I make it not crap? 

My phone was updated to Marshmallow about a month ago and it's fantastic! Lollipop was crap and sat huge on my phone, but this update is like having my phone back. 

I know you were all worried about that. 

 

[knight1fox3]

Fox:

Do you know anything about this system?

Is it one cable wire to the TiVo box which then acts like a router to other TVs?

Do I need a HD TV or is just a HD monitor with a HDMI input all that's needed...i.e. I don't need a tuner for the TV.

I currently have a single HDTV with cable/DVR box.  I wanted to add a DVR to a new HDTV and the sales guy talked me into this.

Thoughts?

http://www.rcn.com/boston/digital-cable-tv/equipment/tivo-whole-home-bundle/

As long as it does what you expect and is fairly straight forward, sounds like a good set-up. And hopefully they have good customer support should anything go awry.  

I'm an almost 4-year cable-cutter so I can't speak to any services like this.  I wasn't a fan of using a DVR as it would tend to get so backed up on recorded content, I wouldn't have time to watch it all and ended up either losing the data or just deleting it out right.  It actually became a chore to try and "clear the DVR" so we quit doing that.  YMMV.

My phone was updated to Marshmallow about a month ago and it's fantastic! Lollipop was crap and sat huge on my phone, but this update is like having my phone back. 

I know you were all worried about that. 

I was! Glad to hear it's working better for you again. MM is fantastic!

 

[knight1fox3]

FYI, from one of my professional data recovery vendors:

Top failing hard drives

We keep a list of the top 5 drives that we are seeing in our lab. Please check your inventory and consider de-commissioning these models:

• Seagate ST31000528AS (522 data recovery incidents)
  
• Seagate ST3000DM001 (392 data recovery incidents)
  
• Seagate ST2000DM001 (343 data recovery incidents)
  
• Seagate ST31000340NS (324 data recovery incidents)
  
• Seagate ST31500341AS (319 data recovery incidents)
  

Important Information About Ransomware

By now you are probably tired of the term, but ransomware continues to be the fastest-growing cybersecurity issue of 2016. These malicious programs encrypt all of the data on your computer (and in some cases, on your local network and attached external storage devices). To restore your data, you're forced to pay a ransom via bitcoin. The ransom amounts can be extremely expensive.

Recently, we've been monitoring developments involving two of the more common ransomware programs:

Locky

Locky uses both RSA and AES encryption algorithms, and because its code doesn't contain exploitable patterns, it is essentially unbreakable. However, hackers recently infiltrated the Locky servers, and we believe that a decryption tool might be available soon. You can read more on our Locky page.

CryptXXX

CryptXXX is a particularly well-designed ransomware program. Several updates have been released; the newest adds a module to steal its victims' passwords. Older decryption tools no longer work for the new CryptXXX 3.100

I pity ANYONE that encounters the CryptXXX ransomware program.  That mf'er is advanced!

 

[matt267 PE]

Fox, does that infect linux systems?

 

[kevo_55]

I thought that Bitcoin was dead.......

 

[knight1fox3]

Fox, does that infect linux systems?

It's not as prevalent, but Linux is not completely immune either. If a ransomware virus infected a windows/apple-based PC on your network, it would likely propagate to any other machines that you have mapped on your network. If it were stand-alone, it might not be affected.

I thought that Bitcoin was dead.......

Ya I think that did actually get knocked back a bit. I'm guessing now the ransom needs to be paid via conventional monetary means.

 

[MA_PE]

Am I missing something here?  Best Buy - two Samsung 48 in. TVs, each on sale for $379, one is a smart TV the other is not.  Is there any real functional difference?  The linked comparison shows a "difference" in the video and audio connections but I don't think they make any difference if I'm connecting to cable with an HDMI input.  Correct?

I bought the dumb TV but I'm thinking I should return it and get the SmartTV.  Even if I don't need/use the browser, hell it's the same TV for the same money with web capability built-in.  I just hate paying more for less.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/compare?skus=4513700,9481034&url=%2Fsite%2Fsearchpage.jsp%3Fcp%3D1%26searchType%3Dsearch%26_dyncharset%3DUTF-8%26ks%3D960%26sc%3DGlobal%26list%3Dy%26usc%3DAll%20Categories%26type%3Dpage%26id%3Dpcat17071%26iht%3Dn%26seeAll%3D%26browsedCategory%3Dpcmcat193400050018%26st%3Dpcmcat193400050018_categoryid%24abcat0101001%26qp%3Dtvtype_facet%3DTV%20Type~LED%5Ebrand_facet%3DBrand~Samsung%5Etvscreensizerange_facet%3DTV%20Screen%20Size~46%22%20-%2049%22&productString=1219756369972*1219704420852

 

[knight1fox3]

Am I missing something here?  Best Buy - two Samsung 48 in. TVs, each on sale for $379, one is a smart TV the other is not.  Is there any real functional difference?  The linked comparison shows a "difference" in the video and audio connections but I don't think they make any difference if I'm connecting to cable with an HDMI input.  Correct?

I bought the dumb TV but I'm thinking I should return it and get the SmartTV.  Even if I don't need/use the browser, hell it's the same TV for the same money with web capability built-in.  I just hate paying more for less.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/compare?skus=4513700,9481034&url=%2Fsite%2Fsearchpage.jsp%3Fcp%3D1%26searchType%3Dsearch%26_dyncharset%3DUTF-8%26ks%3D960%26sc%3DGlobal%26list%3Dy%26usc%3DAll%20Categories%26type%3Dpage%26id%3Dpcat17071%26iht%3Dn%26seeAll%3D%26browsedCategory%3Dpcmcat193400050018%26st%3Dpcmcat193400050018_categoryid%24abcat0101001%26qp%3Dtvtype_facet%3DTV%20Type~LED%5Ebrand_facet%3DBrand~Samsung%5Etvscreensizerange_facet%3DTV%20Screen%20Size~46%22%20-%2049%22&productString=1219756369972*1219704420852

I would also go for the Smart features if the price is the same.  Call it future-proofing.  :thumbs:

 

[kevo_55]

IMO, Smart TV's suck. Well, to be specific their wifi antennas suck. They work pretty good if you can simply hard connect them to the internet.

I have a smart tv and I no longer use it's features. I simply plugged in a Roku into it and just use that.

Works much better.

 

[MA_PE]

IMO, Smart TV's suck. Well, to be specific their wifi antennas suck. They work pretty good if you can simply hard connect them to the internet.

I have a smart tv and I no longer use it's features. I simply plugged in a Roku into it and just use that.

Works much better.

I actually have two smart TVs and use the feature rather infrequently, which is why I went with the dumb one.  But when I saw the smart one was the same price it's like WTH?!?  I might as well get the smart one.

 

[knight1fox3]

IMO, Smart TV's suck. Well, to be specific their wifi antennas suck. They work pretty good if you can simply hard connect them to the internet.

I have a smart tv and I no longer use it's features. I simply plugged in a Roku into it and just use that.

Works much better.

I tend to agree with this on the earlier models.  However, IMO, the units with dual-band Wi-Fi tend to work much better as you now have the ability to utilize the 5GHz band which will generally see less traffic and be less susceptible to interference/congestion from other devices. And I believe that most newer Smart TVs utilize N and AC band technologies.

 

[knight1fox3]

http://gizmodo.com/record-setting-hard-drive-writes-information-one-atom-a-1783740015?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link

Record-Setting Hard Drive Writes Information One Atom At a Time

Researchers working in the Netherlands have developed an atomic-scale rewritable data-storage device capable of packing 500 terabits onto a single square inch. Incredibly, that’s enough to store every book written by humans on a surface the size of a postage stamp.

This atomic hard drive, developed by Sander Otte and his colleagues at Delft University, features a storage density that’s 500 times larger than state-of-the-art hard disk drives. At 500 terabits per square inch, it has the potential to store the entire contents of the US Library of Congress in a 0.1-mm wide cube. The new system, described in the latest issue of Nature Nanotechnology, still requires considerable work before it’s ready for prime time, but it’s an important proof-of-principle that lays the groundwork for the development of useable atomic-scale data storage devices.

 

[MetsFan]

FYI, from one of my professional data recovery vendors:

I pity ANYONE that encounters the CryptXXX ransomware program.  That mf'er is advanced!

Seagate drives are the worst.  Out of all the drives I've bought over the years - WD, Maxtor, Seagate, Hitachi - Seagate is the only brand I've had issues with.

 

[knight1fox3]

Seagate drives are the worst.  Out of all the drives I've bought over the years - WD, Maxtor, Seagate, Hitachi - Seagate is the only brand I've had issues with.

I've only used a handful of their performance level barracuda drives which I didn't have trouble. But I think their newer low-end economy drives are the ones having issues. I also have an external UBS 3.0 seagate drive that seems to work fine. But my go-to brand for magnetic media is WD, hands down. Toshiba has been the absolute worst and highest failure rate based on my actual experience in repairing things. And also why I was so ticked off when I heard they had purchased my go-to SSD vendor, OCZ.

 

[knight1fox3]

Time is almost up!

 

[Ramnares P.E.]

Seagate drives are the worst.  Out of all the drives I've bought over the years - WD, Maxtor, Seagate, Hitachi - Seagate is the only brand I've had issues with.

Second this.  Seagate drives are the only ones I've had issues with.  WD is by far my go to brand for external drives.

 

[JHW 3d]

27 minutes ago, kevo_55 said: IMO, Smart TV's suck. Well, to be specific their wifi antennas suck. They work pretty good if you can simply hard connect them to the internet. I have a smart tv and I no longer use it's features. I simply plugged in a Roku into it and just use that.

Works much better.

I actually have two smart TVs and use the feature rather infrequently, which is why I went with the dumb one.  But when I saw the smart one was the same price it's like WTH?!?  I might as well get the smart one.

Sorry late to the party on this question. I have a Samsung 4K smart TV which I got on Black Friday 2014, so it's not the absolute newest. Real value in smart TV technology is that services like Netflix, HBOGo, and others can immediately start streaming in 4K. Whereas with your set top box I do not believe these were immediately supported (I could be wrong with some models). Something to consider now that 4K TVs are also coming down in price quite a bit. If you are trying to "future proof" why not go with the extra pixels?

 

[Supe]

^ Interesting point, hadn't thought of that.

 

[matt267 PE]

My UPS failed to provide uninterrupted power to my computer during a power outage today. Is it worth buying a new one?