You know that you can disable the Critical Updates Notification, right? It's one of the first things I did when I reinstalled Windows.

I'm aware of that. In fact, on the computer in question, I actually deliberately installed the Critical Updates Notification feature because I actually wanted it. I do want to know if there's a new security update for this particular computer. I'm complaining not because of the feature's presence, but because the feature gives me false alarms.

Yeah, that's the whole reason I turned it off in the first place. This is just my home computer. Nothing real critical on it to worry about. So, I just check the windows updates when I remember to see if there are any critical updates.

Because these same 'oblivious' people are feelingless so the vibrations aren't felt.

People who insist on driving with their foglights on when it's not foggy. It seems to be the latest craze here.

Same here, the market isn't cornered in your woods, might as well be driving w/the brights on. Something worse is people who have headlights out but bought expensive ion bullet driving lights to make up for them.
OK I have to say that not using turn signals is my worse pet peeve of other drivers (excuse me non-drivers). The running joke here is turn signals must have been an option on that (offending vehicle) car.

OK I have to say that not using turn signals is my worse pet peeve

Around where I live, there were a lot of "Visualize World Peace" bumper stickers for a while. Recently, I've been seeing ones that say "Forget world peace, visualize using your turn signal."

Around where I live, there were a lot of "Visualize World Peace" bumper stickers for a while

I always liked the "Visualize Whirled Peas" version better.

15) Police cars that drive (a) with their high beams on; (b) contrary to road rules; (c) thru red lights with their sirens on and turn them off on the other side; (d) that just drive.

They drive with their sirens on thru red lights because they actually have to be somewhere FAST, most likely in aid of somebody who needs it! The reason they turn them off again after they passed the lights is because they don't want to annoy the hell out of people with their siren OR because they don't want to alarm anybody who shouldn't know they are coming!
And, let's not forget : in doing so, (driving through red lights to come to somebody's aid) they risk their own lives.

I'm sorry if that annoys you.

The reason they turn them off again after they passed the lights is because they don't want to annoy the hell out of people with their siren OR because they don't want to alarm anybody who shouldn't know they are coming!

However, in most areas, it is the law that police officers must have their sirens on when travelling to a crime scene in an emergent fashion. In 99% of the cases where I've seen things similar to the earlier post, they are not moving any faster then the speed limit, indicating that they're not in the rush that running a red light would imply, they're usually doing it because the doughnut shop is about to close (at least in the cases where I've followed them, again, at normal speed). I, personally, haven't seen any of this since our government had video cameras installed in cop cars that turn on when the siren is turned on. You do the math. But if you live in an area where policemen are actually friendly and do their job without hassling people or abusing their power, then count yourself lucky. Those places are becoming harder and harder to find.

Or they're between 80 and death... Always complaining that the younger people are the ones creating all the car accidents. They're f***** half blind driving thru town on all the red lights they can find.

TommyE

16) Applications that run on multi-user operating systems but don't understand the difference between users and keep the same preferences for all of them.

I mean, why aren't you just saving preferences in a user-specific location to begin with, whether it be a home directory or a registry or whatever? If I'm logging in as a different user, chances are that I don't want the same preferences. And if I do, I'm probably smart enough (given that I'm one person using two different accounts), to copy the information over or whatever.

Note that none of this removes the possibility of one login user having multiple personalities, as they can still exist in that user's personal config location.

Why can software engineers not figure this out!?!

Hi,

They do not make multi-user configurable software, because their drag-and-drop comes default with HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE instead of HKEY_CURRENT_USER. :-)

The end of the Empeg car player, which desrved a better, more considerate parent than SB.

The ignominius, toss-the-stock discounting to shift boxes off the shelf only a day or two before Christmas - which marketing brain thought that gimmick up?

The cack-handed way that Rob has been dealt with by not being told of the discount to less than a quarter of original retail, and him having to scramble and grovel to match it and deal with the fall out on the European shop site. In his own time. On a Sunday. Two days before Christmas.

(RANT ON)
In spite of my long involvement with Empeg and the fact that I have been the personal beneficiary of much goodwill and generosity from SB via the Empeg team, I find it difficult to restrain my annoyance and growing dismay at SB's actions. This latest cheap shot has shocked me to the core. There may be a reason for it, but it hasn't been explained. In the absence of information, speculation begins.

If I feel angry about something that is for me, "just a hobby" (ha!), then I wonder just how humiliated and upset Rob, Hugo, Steve, Patrick, and Mike feel to see their hard work and brilliantly original design simply binned and tossed into the "Bargain Basement" corner, like damaged furniture kits with no screws at an IKEA store. This is dissing of the highest quality.

I am aware that they have moved on to new work, that they have just brought out a new, even more capable product the capabilities of which are quite astounding and far outstrip that of the car player. I am aware that the future is bright and there is likely to be a new car player, even if it is badge-engineered for some other major car audio manufacturer.

Doesn't stop me feeling DAMNED ANGRY, though.

Merry Christmas, Sonic Blue marketing and sales.

(RANT OFF)

Rob, thanks for being a voice of the raw, uncensored truth. We need posts like this to balance out what is sometimes an overly politically correct bunch. It's almost as if SonicBlue were TRYING to mess it up as much as possible. I mean you can't pull off this kind of idiocy by accident. It's just not possible.

A while back it was said that SonicBlue purchased the Empeg team, not the Empeg product. That says a lot about the foresight of those who work at SB. It was strictly a human resources move to get talented programmers, "and oh, by the way, they have this product we need to do something about."

Their latest maneuvers constitute the electronic equivalent of black coal. And I thought I was nice this year, not naughty...

Anyway, in all seriousness, happy holidays to everyone, and let's look forward to great innovations in user development on the Empeg. SonicBlue can't take that away from us.

You know, I've been having this feeling of déja vù. You see, I used to own an Amiga 1000. Of course, Commodore's mismanagement of that one pretty much killed the whole company...

Of course, the best ever bumper sticker has to be:

NUKE THE UNBORN CHRISTIAN GAY WHALES

tanstaafl.

schofiel, thanks for saying this. I feel the same way, but wouldn't say it becuase of my low status on this BBS (although I have been lurking since the beginning). The brilliant Empeg is being tossed aside like SB's garbage! It is an unfortunate admission of defeat for a product that could sell for years to come in it's current state.

There is one major problem with the car player that meant it wouldn't takeover the market the empeg guys designed something at least 4 to 5 years ahead of it's time.

Car audio is very conservative it would take years before something like the empeg would become common.

it is like the jump from in car transistor radio to a cd multi changer in one step.

Just be thankyou you have one (or two)

it is like the jump from in car transistor radio to a cd multi changer in one step.

This is true. However, I recently was at an import car show (basically all souped-up Civics) and saw no Empegs. There is no reason the SB marketing machine could not have penetrated at least this niche group of people.

My opinion is this... If you are going to spend thousands of dollars on a sound system, there better be an Empeg in there. And, if there isn't, you had better have a damn good reason.

This is true. However, I recently was at an import car show (basically all souped-up Civics) and saw no Empegs. There is no reason the SB marketing machine could not have penetrated at least this niche group of people.

Actually, there are several reasons.

While generalizations are risky, I think this one holds true: That particular niche group is into COOL first, CARS second, and maybe, just maybe STEREO as a distant third -- and when they think stereo, they mean how many 12" speakers, how many kilowatts of amplifier can they cram into a Civic and how many decibels of bass can they produce. For that, they most assuredly do *not* need a $1000 audiophile-quality head unit. They don't even need a $199 audiophile-quality head unit that requires them to take their mega-bass CD home, load it into a computer, convert it into an MP3 file, and download it into their player before they can play it. All this after getting a computer, getting the ripping/encoding software, going through the learning curve of how to use it, installing and learning how to use the emplode and player software, learning how to do software upgrades... guys, that is one HELL of a lot of time and effort to go through just so you can play music in your car.

Unless someone is pretty seriously into music, and at the same time pretty seriously into computers, he is never going to "get it" as regards the empeg. The huge majority of car owners not only do not (and never will) understand the empeg, they don't need it and they wouldn't want it if you gave it to them for free! I mean, who would be foolish eough to want a player in his car that won't even play CDs, that you have to take into your house and hook up to a computer (a COMPUTER, for God's sake!) before you can even use it, that is so complicated to operate that even people who have used it for a year don't know how to do half the things it can do?

Well, at last count there were 1320 of us on this bbs who are "foolish" enough to want such a thing. I cannot imagine ever going back to the pre-empeg state of being. But if you think that the import car show you went to was a niche market... the niche that we bbs'ers are in is sub-microscopic. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that our sub-microscopic niche comprises a pretty large percentage of the total world-wide market for these highly specialized, highly sophisticated and difficult to use players. Think about it -- they had to reduce the price to about 1/4 of what it cost them to build them before even WE would buy out the remaining stock.

It is unfortunate that being the best does not necessarily imply commercial viability. I am not convinced that even an all-out marketing effort on the part of Sonic Blue could have given enough mass-market appeal to the empeg to sell them in quanitity at a price high enough to be profitable.

tanstaafl.

good reply. I still feel the Empeg was short-changed though.

Hi,

I must agree with you. If Apple had designed their Newton PDA from scratch using today's technology, they'd be capable of owning the PDA market.

Same way, if the EmpegCar (it's not a RioCar i my book anyway) was to be redesigned in five years time, when the mass consumer market was ready for it, it would be a true success.

But it seems that true genious only gets appreciated years after the invention or inventor has died. The "cult" status the product has here only proves that.

I just ordered a spare unit after the relentless price-drop the day before christmas, and tried to explain it to my wife, who has previously been understanding with my, eh .. cough, cough, investments, but to no avail.

It's my guess that it will be a long time before something this unique will surface again.

As good a reply as it was, let me pose the following:

- same code base as empeg car
- more features
- more expensive

What's all this then? Why, it's the new HSX-109, of course. I want it to succeed, and it deserves to, as well - but if we use Doug's argument, then how can it?

It's being sold into a different market, and a much larger one at that. It is more expensive though, so the same effect as the car player - sticker shock - may still yet come into play. Time will tell.

My own opinion is that if the car player had not existed in the first place, then neither would the HSX. If the HSX does succeed, it will be riding on the shoulders of the deceased car player. The one really good effect it may have is that it may pave the way for a similar, car-type product in the future. This will however be a while off yet, though, so don't hold your breath: it won't be an SB, or Empeg badged product anyway.

Going back to the pitch of my original post - I am more annoyed about the lack of straightforward professional courtesy shown by SB to the Empeg lads than the loss of the car player (not wholly true, though ). The lack of "Moral Fibre" shown by SB when times started to get tough was appalling, and I still fail to see how they can justify (other than high production costs and relatively low sales due to an absence of any market presence) cutting the player after they had just spent a bundle re-engineering the damn thing ready for another production batch! You can't tell me that just the cost of re-tooling the panel tool caused them to loose their nerve!!!

No, I am more and more convinced, as others have been stating for a while here, that this was not anything to do with product acquisition or market positioning, it was purely to obtain the knowledge and manpower of the Empeg development team. If so, then how else can you view their following actions as anything other than Machiavellian in nature - which immediately implies there was a long-term strategy in mind at the time of the takeover.

A lot of the people involved in the takeover on SB's side (including Tim E, the tech liason who was the prime mover) have since been canned or have resigned. This implies a schism between factions in SB management between the penny-pinchers (the winners) and the engineers (the loosers, as usual). As soon as the red ink started to appear, weak management allowed the cost cutting faction to come to the fore, showing that short-termism was the primary focus of the management team all along.

To their credit (and I suspect mainly due to Empeg's influence) the car player concept has not simply been binned, since a badge-engineering approach has been taken to try and find an established partner in the marketplace. But this is a strategy that feeds out expertise to other companies, and is again short term in nature. It means that after the OEMs who license now have learned how to do it, generation 2 of OEM products wil essentially be in-house engineered by their own teams, they will be low-proce and mass-market, they will finally build the taste for the product in the market place some 5-8 years down the road, and then Where the hell will SB be? Down the tubes, baby, down the tubes.

SB is selling the talent of the Empeg team cheaply, and they should be ashamed. No doubt I am shooting in the dark in the absence of fact (hey, this is a non-corporate forum after all!) and I suspect statements herein will ruffle some feathers - unfortunately within Empeg itself. So allow me to issue the standard disclaimer in this case: All these statements made herein are my own opinion, based on many years of similar experience in software and engineering. The reason I make them is because I have high personal regard for all of the team at Cambridge (primarily due to their sense of integrity) and I do not wish them sold down the river by short-sighted management with no nerve or concept of forward planning. Forgive me, lads - my mouth runs away sometimes, as well you know.

The trouble with SB's (in my opinion, young, inexperienced and nerveless) management was that they wanted it all, and not tomorrow, NOW. Sorry chums, it just doesn't happen that way - the old adage about oak trees and acorns comes to mind here. In watching Hugo, Rob, Mike and Patrick's initially slow but steady attempts at growth I am inclined to believe that they would have suceeded on their own, but in the much longer term. It would have been many years, and they would have needed more products, but I am confident they would have suceeded. We'll never know.

Put it this way - if I was aware that Hugo was considering a further, independent commercial venture in the technolgy market, then I suspect I may well be knocking on his door with cash to invest

Pity we couldn't buy the empeg design off them and put into production when the world is ready for the leap

Why, it's the new HSX-109, of course. I want it to succeed, and it deserves to, as well - but if we use Doug's argument, then how can it?


By omiting the PC from the picture - 'average' upper-tier consumers are supposed to use CD drive to 'store' their music without even knowing what terms like 'ripping', 'encoding' and 'psychoacustical model' mean. The most advanced thing they are expected to do is connecting a RioReceiver or two via phone wires and perhaps adding a keyboard. Meanwhile, crazies like ourselves still get their emplode, Ethernet (if only via external adapter), console display on the unit itself, CD-RW drive for backups etc. This concept just might work.

Otherwise, I agree with every word of your post.

Hi.

Pity we couldn't buy the empeg design off them and put into production when the world is ready for the leap

Why not? I know for a fact that SonicBlue would sell the empeg design at a certain price (that I don't know yet, I backed of beforehand). Sure, we probably couldn't use it for further development, but what improvement would it need?
However, we would still need to source the necessary parts, find the appropriate production lines etc. But I'm sure someone at empeg would be willing to help us finding all that.
So: Who has the money (or is able to get it) to do so? I would certainly chime in with some more money and some hard work. Gee, I was already thinking about doing all that with just one friend helping me with the financial stuff like balancing etc.

cu,
sven

I must agree with you. If Apple had designed their Newton PDA from scratch using today's technology, they'd be capable of owning the PDA market.

It's not that simple. PocketPC has been superior to Palm devices in every respect since their launch. Palm still owns the hand-held market.

Not all palm-top devices have yet approached the Newton's "old" technology, let alone if they were to redesign with today's. I had a MessagePad 2000 and I loved it. The only problem really was its size.

I suspect you'll start to see these devices continue to push into the multimedia arena until they become completely portable PC's. The market for such devices is still in its infancy however. Most people are still satisfied with a small addressbook and contact manager that needs to be synced with a main PC.

The latest batch of PocketPC 2002 machines are getting there. I want to see mass-storage in this form factor though. Using internal PC-card drives for example. Again, this type of thing will take off in the next few years given the technology announcements we've had over the past 18 months from companies like IBM, etc.

Bruno

PocketPC has been superior to Palm devices in every respect since their launch.

Whoa, there! Did you use WinCE 1.0? Let's just say that it was appropriately named -- ``wince''. In the other hand, WinCE has improved dramatically since that point while PalmOS has done little more than add color support, as far as I can see.

I suspect you'll start to see these devices continue to push into the multimedia arena until they become completely portable PC's.

I think that was exactly Palm's advantage: it did not try to be a very small PC, but very practical, extendable organizer (as opposed to all those Casio and whatever organizers with tiny keypads on one extremity, and PocketPC on other).

I still use my original 2MB PalmPilot Pro (top of the line when I bought it) and for me the competition does not come from WinCE based things, but the likes of my new Ericsson R380, which has almost all organizer functionality (including superior, much more natural character recognition and smaller, but higher resolution screen) packaged into not too large GSM cellular phone.