MSNTV, WebTV, Interactive Television, Set Top Appliance, LBB, Little Black Box, Inexpensive Internet Access, Computer Phobia, Virus Free WWW, Easy To Use 'Net, Table Art, Audioscope Art, Basic HTML, Why Computers Hate Us, Internet For: The Disabled, Elderly, Poor "Just when u think yer life is hard, along comes MSNTV to remind u: it could b WORSE! :)" ~~Rogi
WebTV Only: Copy & Paste Any Amount Of
Text In This Box To Enlarge It For The Vision Impaired. *THIS BOX WILL EXPAND*
When flame wars happen in a ng, I get very quiet. I wait for it to blow over. If it doesn't, I leave.
I go to quite a large and far-flung number of alt.discuss ngs, from atheism to zoology. Aside from the occasional "troll:" some lost soul, looking for attention, no major flame wars errupt. Not even in in the alt.discuss.politics.liberal ng! And it's not a club!
I've been called all sorts of names, accused of the weirdest junk, been email bombed, had my web site copied, had my EMPLOYER contacted re: the content of some of my writings, been accused of "whining" when my oldest friend died, etc. I've even been called a crack addict!
Still, after about five years online, for the MOST part, I've been pretty well left alone. Part of that is because I'll leave, rather than listen to abuse.
I agree, there's a lot of nasty, childish behavior online, by MSNTV users. But it's nothing compared to what happens outside of alt.discuss.
I rarely post outside alt.discuss for that reason.
By the way, if you want to post spam-free outside alt.discuss, I've found a way.
Don't use the discuss platform provided by MSNTV.
Go into another of your usernames which doesn't require email. Have the email priviledges turned ON.
Switch to primary user; turn off email priviledges for that 2nd user.
Now, any time you wish to visit a Google Group, simply sign on at Google with that secondary user's address, but do it from your primary user name, with that secondary user's email turned off.
You can post any and everywhere in the Google groups and nobody can spam or email bomb that secondary user!
Since Google groups contain all of alt., rec., soc., etc, you have complete freedom to post without the nasty reprocussions of not being able to hide your email address!
Here's what I had to do to composite an image yesterday.
Take Image A to IM; place Image B on top; adjust parameters.
If not correct position, switch users.
Come BACK to IM and repeat, changing parameters.
I kept both images and IM in my email in-box, for quick access.
The problem SEEMS to be with our caches, not with IM.
I see problems elsewhere online with the cache lately. My "recents" don't show the page I'm on until it's completely loaded; my "recents" misses pages; my "back" button isn't working properly, particularly on cookied sites; etc.
It appears to be an MSNTV bug, not a fault with IM. But, if the MSNTV has permanently changed, the IM hosts might want to know, so they can script work arounds, if that's permitted by the originator of the script.
After twenty tries, switching users, I finally compositted my image!
I had a FEW problems with annotating, too, but was able to hit the "back" key pretty regularly and finish without switching users more than twice for two annotations.
It's very frustrating, but composing can be done this way.
It's not a "time out" problem; it's not a problem with the images. It's a problem with how MSNTV is accessing the IMs, I believe.
***************
I REALLY wanted my Saddam Claus on Sunday, the DAY he was captured, so I was HIGHLY motivated to go through the hassle of switching users a bazillion times to finish him! LOL
Normally, I don't composite much. I have an annotate on my home page at http://rriverstone.com but even that is exceptional use of IM for me.
Annotate is a bit finicky as well these days. And I have the phantom picture problem as well.
They've done something to MSNTV "guts" recently; that's all I can figure, since users are reporting this problem across the board at all IMs. It's a cache thing, I think.
as I said in my post, this is occurring in all the IMs.
And even users who work incredibly quickly are having this problem, the first time they hit their "back" buttons.
On this date, Manny removed the Logging Script which he had on the
T/L2 Forum. I will continue to monitor the situation, but still advise any WebTv'ers to change not only their T/L2 password(s) but also any other passwords for other sites which may be present in your T/L2 FTP or Mail Server settings.
.....Willy
AbelMalcom posted in news:alt.discuss.politics.liberal that he has been officially contacted by MSNTV, warning him of a Terms of Service (TOS) violation. They are threatening to cancel his MSNTV service. He used a word, commonly considered an obscenity, in the subject of a post.
I didn't like it. I resent people cursing at me. A subject is visible to everybody who enters the group. But that's neither here nor there.
He asked us what we thought of our First Ammendment rights being taken away by MSNTV.
Here's my reply:
Well, under the TOS, certain language is not allowed. Whether or not I agree with this, it's not my bandwidth.
Technically, I suppose, it IS my bandwidth, as I'm PAYING premium ISP fees for it. But I agreed to the TOS implicitly when I decided to use alt.discuss.
Now, these TOS terms are used by subscribers to MSNTV as tools for abusing other subscribers with whom they disagree.
I, for example, could get Naval in trouble by reporting him to MSNTV for violating the TOS with his foul language. I couldn't do it on my own, however; I'd have to campaign among my msntv friends and cronies and get THEM to complain, too. MSNTV won't listen to one malcontent; they'll only act when an organized protest erupts.
So, let me congratulate you on being perceived as such a threat to the "sacrosanct" reactionary movement that they've chosen to target you!
I have used the very word you've mentioned in ONE, very angry and hurt post I made during a personal crisis to which my fellow posters were, at best, indifferent and, at worst, abusive. Nothing happened to me. I used the word in my own newsgroup, in the body of the post, not the subject.
Free speech doesn't exist in the private sector. It only exists in public venues and is under attack, even there.
The reactionary wrong is using every resource they can ferret out to silence us. That's a fact: an ugly, frightening, discouraging, overwhelming FACT!
We must prepare ourselves to meet this threat. None of us is safe.
It is our responsibility to comport ourselves as cleverly, as diligently, as assertively as we can in the midsts of hair-splitters and bean counters.
Just look at Queer rights, civil rights and other, marginalized groups who've had to work twice as hard to get half as much as anybody else. No, it's not fair. No, it's not right. But it's real.
Four hundred women in Afghanistan are on a waiting list in Kahbul right now, simply to attend beauty school. Is this revolutionary? By my USA standards, it's darn near reactionary!
But women who've been locked in their homes alone, depressed and isolated are now earning forty dollars a week as a result. The average income in Afghanistan is thirty dollars a MONTH!
And these women, while finally wearing makeup and fixing their hair, STILL wear burkhas in public! It hasn't been that long since their fingers could be cut off for wearing nail polish, and the Taliban is reviving itself.
It is my duty, as a commited liberal and social justice activist, to SPEAK for those who cannot speak! I've been speaking up for Afghani women's rights for nearly a full DECADE before the current administration "discovered" feminism as a public relations tool in its so-called "war on terrorism."
So, while I TRULY understand your frustration at being reported for a Terms of Service violation, I must admonish ALL of us who are progressive, who think and live "outside the box (multiple meanings intended)," who listen to other than talk radio, who have committed ourselves to social justice and liberal values, I MUST admonish all of us to KNOW the Terms of Service and to comply with them in EVERY POSSIBLE WAY!
The small, the scared, the lemmings, the witch burners, the paranoid, the self righteous, the unAmerican jackboot dittohead reactionaries who are running rampant across our country and within alt.discuss will use ANY MEANS NECESSARY to silence us.
Now, more than ever, we owe it to our bleeding nation to not be silenced! It's our patriotic duty!
If ONLY... we webbies are so familiar with this phrase, it might as well be the brand name of MSNTV!
Perlman's a genius. Or, at least, he was a real breath of fresh air, when he came up with WebTV.
But If ONLY this new appliance had come out before everybody else was already on the same track!
Anyway, Interactive TV isn't dead, just languishing, and only temporarily.
Phone companies are scrambling. Under pressure from competition from cell phones and computer telephoning, phone companies are heaving under the weight of their own infrastructures. Those infrastructures depended on phone companies' maintaining control of almost 100% of the phone customer base. Less customers than that, and the phone companies bleed money.
So, don't dispair; Interactive Television is the Next Thing the phone companies are investigating.
In the mean time, here's Perlman's latest fiddlings:
This COPIED article below can be found on the Internet here - - -
(Editor's note: "There's a couple of great pictures of the Moxi on the website above")
— Here Come the HDTV Recorders! —
***Moxi Finally Ready***
When it launched two years ago at CES, Moxi was a revolutionary concept. But now, after a change of ownership, it's just another HDTV DVR. The finalized Moxi-based box from Motorola, called "Broadband Media Center" (BMC9012), includes two HDTV tuners. It can simultaneously record two shows to its 80 gigabyte hard drive, which stores around 9 hours of HDTV content.
The Moxi is built on an x86 platform, runs Linux, and, in addition to playing back HDTV and regular TV, will also support digital music and photos – although Motorola was not demonstrating those capabilities. Oddly enough for such a brawny box (about twice the size of Scientific Atlanta's 8300), it includes no PC connectivity. A DOCSIS cable modem is included, which allows it to provide IP service to other computers in the house via the built-in Ethernet port.
When WebTV founder Steve Pearlman rolled Moxi out, he made a big deal about its ability to support satellite clients over 802.11a. These lightweight clients were supposed to extend the Moxi out to two other rooms. Sadly, Motorola's initial Moxi implementation does not include support for satellite clients. Scientific Atlanta, on the other hand, seems to have provided an elegant solution.
- - -
Man, after the Anthony Chu bull crud, you'd have thought this outfit would have tap danced 'til their shoes smoked to reestablish trust with its clients! WRONG!
For the last several weeks I have noticed that Manny at the T/L2 Forum is using a logging script to capture User Information and particularly the pages in your HISTORY. Note, if you go to the forum without logging out of your site the timestamped login information will be present in history and the logger would allow someone to use that information to gain access into your file manager and open your account information to see your password for future use. If you have visited the forums, it is advised that you change your passord ASAP.
Below is a copy of the script included in a message I forwarded to Tyhart.
From: "Willy Duitt" Date: 8 Dec 05:07 (PST)
To: tyhart@xxxx.net
Subject: Notice: Manny is using a logger script at Transload Forum!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ty;
As a leading member of the WebTv community you may wish to know Manny has been and continues to LOG members info including history whenever you visit the forum. It should also be noted that Manny is NOT sanctioned by Tisnet. This is why he must request users to send him their account information. The WebTv/Transload Forum is just one of many which is hosted by Starblvd's. Check out the one I opened in the JAVASCRIPT category for testing the ability to add/change the forums codes and have you noticed Manny has changed the forum to PASSWORD PROTECTED without the ability to sign up?
He recently updated his LOGGER and changed the address the script is
at to another Angelfire site.
Below you will find the Codes from todays LOGGER script addy change.
NOTE where the javascript is placed on a line shortly after MR.CHU
just tried to acces the new "improved" zap2it tv listings for msntv classic.
a little, grey window thing popped up and asked me if I'd participate in a survey. It was some sort of dhtml or javascript window thing, with 2 radio buttons, one for yes and one for no.
I clicked, "yes," I'd participate in the survey. The window disappeared and I went to the tv listings. hmmmm
No survey. Hit "back," which, of course, did nothing helpful.
Now, this window said it was FROM MSNTV. But it doesn't work on an MSNTV browser? Ok.
I would click an "enter" or "submit" button, etc., and nothing would happen! The yellow box around the link would sometimes turn green, sometimes not.
The box wasn't "frozen;" I could press my "home" button, etc., and those would work.
But the buttons around form fields wouldn't work. It was, I believe, a "cookie drop." The sites didn't know who I was and were searching frantically to try to answer my commands, but weren't getting any info from me. I can't use a filemanager, for instance, if my cookies don't show I know the password!
They're up to something at MSNTV tech. WE don't get to know what it is, of course, because we're just the subscribers.
Count another fourteen seconds. There. Another person is infected with AIDS.
Did you have a hard day?
I did. I'm emotionally exhausted, from telling a new friend, Stu, a little of my experience with homelessness and with losing my daughter, all the while being socially ostricized.
I'm physically exhausted from trying to do too much work outside, too fast, while the weather holds out.
I'm in a lot of pain.
But I am not an infant child, dying of AIDS, orphaned because BOTH my parents, and most of my siblings, died of AIDS, too.
I am not a raped woman in India, whose husband gave her the virus and then threw her out when she showed symptoms.
I am not dying of AIDS, alone, socially ostricised, hungry, homeless and helpless.
Count to fourteen. There. Another person is infected with AIDS. Every fourteen seconds.
Now, go here and donate one little dollar: 46664. That's Nelson Mandela's prisoner number.
the best
pretty good
ok
pretty bad 
the worst help?