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Stories and comments across the archive that link to arstechnica.com.

Comments · 9,494

  1. Re:You know it's Apple by MacDork · · Score: 1 · on An IM Patent for the iPhone?

    You can tell that Apple is still the same company they have always been when they are patenting functionality that is already on most modern cell phones and is noticably absent from the iPhone.

    When Apple starts trolling with it, do cry about it. Until then, it isn't unusual for trolls to sue Apple over obvious shit just like this.

  2. Re:"Blocking" by ion.simon.c · · Score: 2, Informative · on FCC Reports Comcast P2P Blocking Was More Widespread

    I had read that as of late 2007, such exclusivity agreements are no longer "legal".

    Ars makes a mention in this article, but I can't be arsed to find a press release or Order on the FCC's site.
    http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080319-fcc-overhauls-its-broadband-data-as-eu-points-and-laughs.html

  3. Re:A less rosy assessment by MojoStan · · Score: 1 · on AMD's Triple-Core Phenom X3 Processor Launched

    And furthermore, TR's reviews are witty, clever, and worth reading beginning to end. Why do so many hardware review sites read like an industry press release or use the same tired analogies and figures of speech? Tech Report's writers actually know how to write, not just run benchmarks and post the results. They're my current fave for reviews. I think Ars Technica said it best when the Core 2 Duo was launched:
    • "The NDAs have lifted on the Core 2 Duo reviews, and you can surf on over to your review site of choice for a boatload of benchmarks and bar graphs. The Tech Report's Core 2 Duo review was the only one that didn't make me want to jab my own eyes out with my mechanical pencil after reading it, so it's the only one I'm actually going to link up here. In fact, I was so frustrated after reading a few of these reviews, that I surfed over to CNN and read up on the latest developments in the Middle East to lighten my mood."
  4. Re:even for M$. by MojoStan · · Score: 4, Informative · on MSN Music DRM Servers Going Dark In September

    It should only take 1-2 CDs for an iTunes user to burn his or her (on average) 20 purchased, DRM'ed tracks and be able to play them on any other machine. Not all DRM is created equal. Insightful? For chrissakes, RTFA:
    • "Of course, MSN Music customers do have one other option: burning all of their music to audio CD and then re-ripping them back to the computer as MP3s, sans DRM. But that's a lossy, lousy solution."
  5. Fixed/Correct link to original article by FrozenFrog · · Score: 4, Informative · on MSN Music DRM Servers Going Dark In September

    Seems the link in the article is incorrect (or has changed). Correct link is: MS to nuke music DRM

  6. Re:Zero... if you didnt RTFA by TheDanglerofTheSouth · · Score: 1 · on Fujitsu HDD with AES 256-bit Encryption

    Apparently, so is zero.
    If you actually went deeper into the story you would see the original original article... explains a LOT more then this.

    The first article that was linked makes it sound like this guy is innocent, but if you read the original article in cnet, you will see that the FBI left the link on a known child porn chat area online... advertising graphically child pornography acts that were expect to see.

    If my drunk friend sent me a link to this site, then Id be the first to turn my drunk friend in the police.

    So the guy who was made out to be the innocent good guy in the aforementioned article, smashed his flash drive and hard drive while FBI was outside his door.

    He also had a windows thumbnail file (thumbs.db), on his machine that showed pictures of "pre-pubescent girls" exposing their genitalia.

    Now the thumbs.db is created for browsing photos easily - AND ONLY CREATED WHEN YOU RIGHT CLICK AND SELECT "VIEW AS... THUMBNAILS"

    This means the man in the article, had PURPOSELY viewed these images before... then deleted the images, but forgot the delete the thumbs.db which contained cached thumbnails of the child porn he was viewing.

    This guy did have porn, he was convicted by a grand jury and he was sent to jail, JUSTLY.
  7. Re:No thanks by Dachannien · · Score: 4, Interesting · on Fujitsu HDD with AES 256-bit Encryption

    Apparently, so is zero.

  8. Precedence in US Vs Forrester by eldavojohn · · Score: 3, Informative · on NJ Supreme Court Rules For Internet Privacy

    I'm not a lawyer but I thought precedence was set for this in US Vs Forrester where a $10 million drug operation had their e-mail, phone and IP address records obtained from their ISP without a warrant. They were guilty but not until the court case.

    This happened just last year. How are they going to reconcile these two rulings?

  9. Re:Backpedaling faster tha you can say... by Fluffeh · · Score: 5, Interesting · on PayPal Denies It Will Block Safari

    There were quite a few indications that Safari would have been included in the list of browsers that no longer were supported:

    Ars link
    Anti Phishing Block

    So, the general meaning of "so we will stop you possibly getting yourself into trouble" really wasn't wrong. Just because you don't type it in with black and white fonts doesn't mean you don't mean it.

    "Lets put this out and check public reaction before we make it 100% official.

  10. Re:Victimless by Repton · · Score: 1 · on BitTorrent Use Up 24% Since November

    You seem to be implying that depriving someone of something doesn't make them a victim as long as it doesn't leave them struggling to survive.

    Perhaps I implied that, but it wasn't my point. How would you describe the RIAA's way of calculating damages, or estimating "losses" due to piracy? I hope you would again use the phrase "complete and utter bullshit"

    If you point to a popular artist whose songs are being traded --- are they actually losing money? Can you prove it? In my personal case, artists I've pirated fall into two categories: Artists I don't like, and artists whose CDs I have subsequently bought. If I couldn't try before I buy, I would have been much more conservative and probably not bought any of those artists anyway.

    But if you can point to someone whose songs are popular and who is obviously not earning as much money as they should, then I would accept them as an indisputable victim of music piracy.

  11. Re:$19 billion out of how much? by puppis · · Score: 2, Informative · on AT&T Claims Internet to Reach Capacity in 2010

    AT&T's annual income was $118 billion in 2007. If they're only investing $19 billion over the next 2 years until 2010, that's 8% of their income they spend on maintaining and upgrading their network. And they make some pretty huge profits, even after all of their expenses ($11 billion in 2007) If they're only spending 8% of their money on network maintenance and upgrades, and raking in huge profits, while their network fails to keep up with demand (which, contrary to alarmist reports is multiplying more slowly than it used to), then they need to spend more than 8%! Doing otherwise, when you run an essential utility, ought to be considered criminal negligence imho. You are misstating revenue as income (which generally means net-profits). AT&T had $118 billion in revenue in 2007 and $11 billion in profits. So $19 billion would be 172% of their profits, a little more than the 8% you calculate.
  12. $19 billion out of how much? by RalphBNumbers · · Score: 5, Insightful · on AT&T Claims Internet to Reach Capacity in 2010

    AT&T's annual income was $118 billion in 2007.

    If they're only investing $19 billion over the next 2 years until 2010, that's 8% of their income they spend on maintaining and upgrading their network.
    And they make some pretty huge profits, even after all of their expenses ($11 billion in 2007)

    If they're only spending 8% of their money on network maintenance and upgrades, and raking in huge profits, while their network fails to keep up with demand (which, contrary to alarmist reports is multiplying more slowly than it used to), then they need to spend more than 8%! Doing otherwise, when you run an essential utility, ought to be considered criminal negligence imho.

  13. i bet that quote... by kris.montpetit · · Score: 3, Informative · on AT&T Claims Internet to Reach Capacity in 2010

    Is part of their/Comcast's previously mentioned and pathetically wrong argument against net neutrality by doomsday mongering about an exaflood that, like Y2K, gigalapses, and marijuana, will be the end of civilization as we know it-unless we allow them to start throttling bandwidth and selling off top speeds to companies

  14. Re:Yeah because this totally worked last season by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on NBC to Create Programs Centered on Sponsors

    I can't believe their execs are this stupid.

    Oh, but they are:
    http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080417-exec-apple-must-address-piracy-before-nbc-returns-to-itunes.html
  15. In Canada... by rrahimi · · Score: 1 · on Study Confirms ISPs Meddle With Web Traffic

    Rogers has been doing this for a while, which goes along very well with their expensive and not-really-high-speed service.

  16. Re:Why AMD + ATI should win, plus why they won't by MojoStan · · Score: 1 · on Why AMD Could Win The Coming Visual Computing Battle

    Why AMD + ATI Should win: Hypertransport. Another possible reason AMD + ATI won't win: it's too late. Intel's QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) is coming later this year when Nehalem ("tock") is launched.

    Putting the GPU on the same bus as the CPU should theoretically eliminate whatever roablocks the PCI bus created. Plus, allowing for die-2-die communication and treating the GPU as a true co-processor instead of a peripheral should open up huge possibilities for performance boosts. Intel has said (and shown in their diagrams) that some versions of Nehalem will have integrated graphics. However, their big GPU statement isn't coming until 2009-2010 in the form of Larrabee. Even if Larrabee is delayed, it might be too late for AMD's Fusion. By the time Fusion launches, Intel should have their interconnect and GPU ready.

    What you need to know about Intel's Nehalem CPU: Page 1
    Nehalem Architecture: Improvements Detailed
    A Little on Larrabee

  17. Re:Comments from MySQL by Kymermosst · · Score: 1, Insightful · on Sun May Begin Close Sourcing MySQL Features

    Can you please point me to GPLed Red Hat Network Satellite server srouce code? Despite this article, it doesn't seem very easy to find.

    Thanks!

  18. "Industry Experts" by MChisholm · · Score: 3, Insightful · on Comcast Proposes Self Regulation and P2P Bill of Rights

    Not surprising that missing from their list of "industry experts" are groups like Free Press, Public Knowledge, and the EFF.

  19. Re:Pre-loaded apps by MojoStan · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft Accommodating Eee With Lightweight XP

    and Apple are not bundling apps in order to put competitors out of business. So may I introduce to you...

    Sherlock 3, which ripped off the 2002 Macworld award-winning Watson and was bundled with OS X 10.2, and

    Dashboard, which ripped off Konfabulator and was bundled with OS X 10.4. Yes, we all know about Desk Accessories, and suggesting that Konfabulator ripped off Desk Accessories is moronic.

    Of course, Apple is not a monopoly and I'm not sure if the makers of Watson and Konfabulator were "competitors." However, they did get fricked by Apple.

  20. Re:Pre-loaded apps by MojoStan · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft Accommodating Eee With Lightweight XP

    and Apple are not bundling apps in order to put competitors out of business. So may I introduce to you...

    Sherlock 3, which ripped off the 2002 Macworld award-winning Watson and was bundled with OS X 10.2, and

    Dashboard, which ripped off Konfabulator and was bundled with OS X 10.4. Yes, we all know about Desk Accessories, and suggesting that Konfabulator ripped off Desk Accessories is moronic.

    Of course, Apple is not a monopoly and I'm not sure if the makers of Watson and Konfabulator were "competitors." However, they did get fricked by Apple.

  21. Re:Seagate scared by keithjr · · Score: 2, Informative · on Seagate Sues STEC For Patent Infringement

    You're absolutely correct. Here's the story you're referring to.

    Resorting to patent lawsuits is NOT a sign of a confident/competent tech company. There's a good chance this will cause a backlash if it fails, which in my opinion is what Seagate richly deserves. Litigation must not become a viable business strategy.

  22. Ah but the ferrets will bring you fiber by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on "Exaflood" Disaster Appears Unlikely

    The same author also wrote on a brand new OECD report that tells how we are going to need a minimum of 50Mbit/s in order in the near future. And best of all he sais, it's going to be brought to us by ferrets.

  23. Re:Experts please explain something by Space+cowboy · · Score: 2, Informative · on Nvidia Physics Engine Almost Complete

    Simple reason:

    On my Mac Pro, I have 8 3GHz CPU's. Consider that the baseline.

    I have 2 8800GT cards to drive the 30" and 2x23" (rotated, one each side of the 30" :-) monitors. That gives me 224 1.5GHz stream processors in the GPU. Even harmonising GHz, thats 8 compared to 112, and its a lot easier to get a parallel algorithm running efficiently on a GPU than on multiple CPU's due to differing hardware designs...

    Now stream processors aren't quite the same as general purpose processors, but the way they're implemented these days, they can be programmed in high-level languages (see jon stokes' article) and if their architecture suits what you want, they can be very very quick. See here for info on programming them...

    Simon.

  24. Re:Experts please explain something by Space+cowboy · · Score: 2, Informative · on Nvidia Physics Engine Almost Complete

    Simple reason:

    On my Mac Pro, I have 8 3GHz CPU's. Consider that the baseline.

    I have 2 8800GT cards to drive the 30" and 2x23" (rotated, one each side of the 30" :-) monitors. That gives me 224 1.5GHz stream processors in the GPU. Even harmonising GHz, thats 8 compared to 112, and its a lot easier to get a parallel algorithm running efficiently on a GPU than on multiple CPU's due to differing hardware designs...

    Now stream processors aren't quite the same as general purpose processors, but the way they're implemented these days, they can be programmed in high-level languages (see jon stokes' article) and if their architecture suits what you want, they can be very very quick. See here for info on programming them...

    Simon.

  25. there are still some issues to be resolved... by Khopesh · · Score: 1 · on IBM Creates Working "Racetrack Memory"

    Ars Technica picked this up yesterday and has a pretty good run-down of how it works (complete with a pretty illustration).

    They also provide Links to the Science articles themselves:

    It's promising, but there are still some lingering issues:

    There is still work to do before an entire three-dimensional memory chip will replace your current memory solutions. The biggest problem may be heat; moving DWs requires a high current, which may destroy the wire or mangle the data it contains. Still, there are some ideas on how to deal with the heat, and this work represents a big step in the direction of a new dimension in memory storage.
  26. Re:Mediasentry's repsonse by LordEd · · Score: 0, Redundant · on Mediasentry Violates Cease & Desist Order

    To be honest, I see no evidence that it was MediaSentry that used the IP addresses belonging to MediaSentry. The article had a correction on it at some time. The posted evidence showed previous offenses, not current. This is still a good theoretical argument though.

    Allowing the IP address as evidence here is either saying that you want IP addresses to be permissible evidence in general, or you use double standards. I am not implying a double standard. Quick google search for an example bring up a statement very similar to what I am attempting to argue (but probably better phrased).

    While there are indeed problems with mapping IPs to people, in this instance there was no doubt as to who occupied the IP in question (namely, the Fosters). There was considerable doubt, however, that it could be convincingly argued that it was in fact Ms. Foster or her daughter who downloaded the material in question. The RIAA backed off of the case, but without specifying why. An IP address points to a network. It can not point to a person. I believe it would have a better chance to be successful against a business than an individual. The IP address is a narrowing evidence, not the end evidence. It can prove that somebody in __ network (yes, vpn is another technical potential argument, but has security locks on it) did something inappropriate. Now, if that inappropriate action is a core property of your business, I think it would require some explaining by the defendant.

    I believe there was another case that the RIAA was successful because the person used a username that they use everywhere on the internet in addition to the source being on their network.

    And it must never be up to the defendant to prove who used something -- the burden of proof must always fall on the accuser I do not believe it is unreasonable to ask for an explanation if a network owned by a company whose core business is to perform that action is directed where it shouldn't be.

    If a building explodes for no apparent reason, but there is a small smoke trail leading from a local missile developer, is it unreasonable to ask for an explanation because they might use a contractor or lease space?
  27. Re:Won't work by ecliptik · · Score: 1 · on Blockbuster Working on Set-Top Box

    That's why Netflix offers "Instant" movies and tv shows, sure it's not the entire library but they're unlimited now and they're constantly adding more. Unfortunately it's only available for Windows, but it's still a nice addition to their already exceptional service at no extra cost.

    http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070116-8627.html
  28. Re:So, explain ... by Dada+Vinci · · Score: 3, Insightful · on Google Shares Its Security Secrets

    This isn't about spam and Google groups. It's about preventing a malicious cracker from accessing the vast quantities of data that Google has about every single Google user. These days, a full identity (SSN + bank account) sells on the black market for $14-$18, depending. Google has tens of millions of users. Not all of them have their SSNs in their Gmail, but I'll bet that a fair bit have at least one credit card number or bank password in their email archives, their search history, or elsewhere within Google's control. Plus, think of the blackmail possibilities if there were a full-scale data breach? Remember the AOL search history breach? A full-scale crack of Google's security would be several times worse.

  29. Related??? by dark_requiem · · Score: 1 · on MyLifeBits to Store Every Moment of Your Life

    Could this have anything to do with this?

    "We want to help you catalog your entire life on your hard drive. Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, we're going to use the contents of your hard drive to serve you contextual adds." <Jedi Mind Trick>This isn't the conflict of interests you're looking for.</Jedi Mind Trick>

  30. Re:whay is "fast food" still so labor-intensive? by el_gordo101 · · Score: 1 · on Purdue Students Win Rube Goldberg Contest

    McD's has actually started outsourcing the "may I take your order" part of the equation. Don't know how much more efficient it is, though...

  31. Re:Scary by couchslug · · Score: 1 · on New Botnet Dwarfs Storm

    Hello APK!

    http://windowsitpro.com/articles/index.cfm?articleid=41095&cpage=11

    http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/51009562/m/3680937305

  32. Re:There are only two kind of peeps... by OS24Ever · · Score: 1 · on Disk Failure Rates More Myth Than Metric

    First off, I didn't call them deathstars, you did.

    Secondly, I didn't say IBM was poor hardware quality. I stated a well known fact that there were issues with those drives, in fact there was a lawsuit about it and IBM settled the suit. So there was something too it. I'm happy you had better results. I didn't enjoy that luck.

    I owned 1x75GB and 4x250GB drives. The 75GB failed, and 2 of the 250GB drives failed. Because I didn't read the part about 'no peanuts' my 75GB was voided and it was never fixed. The second time I sent the 2x250GBs in I made sure not to make that mistake, and they were fixed under warranty and worked until I got rid of the server they were in.

    I now happen to buy Seagate hard drives for my personal use, but it happens that the reason I do that is IBM no longer is in the hard drive business so my incentive to buy them is not so high any more.

    What was that incentive? I happen to work for them. One of those 'eat your own dogfood' kinda things in that if I can work for them, I can use the stuff in my personal projects. That being said my response was a personal one, on my own time, and didn't express any IBM opinion on the matter.

    I'm just expressing my own opinion in the original post was rather dubious in nature because I find it hard to believe no one ever had hard disk fail - ever - I've been using computers now for almost 30 years. From my little Atari 800. Saying that in all that time you never had a disk fail says you either never used computers, or you should buy a lottery ticket. I can remember a 10MB hard drive actually smoking in the late 80s in a Compaq Plus, and the excitement of getting it replaced with a 'hard card' that had a whoppin 20MB on it.

    Since then, I've had hard disk never fail the entire time I owned a system, and I've had others crash and burn within weeks of getting them. It's impossible to expect something that does the equivalent of a 747 flying over water 2ft above ground at mach 20 or whatever the stat is to not break every once in a while.

  33. Re:This is a problem for a lot of software by Sentry21 · · Score: 1 · on Adobe Photoshop CS4 Will Be 64-Bit For Windows Only

    You can see Ars Technica's writeup on the Cocoa port of QT4 for more information on how they've actually done so far.

    The Cocoa API is also being unofficially open-source ported to other platforms (most actively Windows platforms) through the intriguing Cocotron project. It's still a work-in-progress, mind you.

    Every portable API uses Carbon, not because of high-level vs. low-level, but because Carbon can be easily integrated with existing C/C++ code, whereas Cocoa requires a little more effort. Carbon provides what a lot of Mac users consider a sub-standard experience, and worse integration, but for most people porting their apps to Mac, they rarely know or care.

    In OS X, there's not a lot of 'communication' that needs to be done to make the window 'less blank', though I'm not sure exactly what that means. You can put together a UI in Interface Builder, put your code into XCode and add whatever the Mac port needs, compile it together, and off you go.

    You can write most of your app in C++, write the GUI-management code in Obj-C (or Obj-C++), and then glue it all together with Obj-C++.

  34. No, Bittorrents take UNFAIR advantage by davide+marney · · Score: 1 · on Net Neutrality Debate Intensifies In Canada

    Yes, it is your torrent client's fault. Because a torrent client is on 24/7 and opens up hundreds of connections at a time, it grabs an unfair proportion of the bandwidth. By contrast, a web browser only opens 2-4 connections at a time, and once it has completed fetching the page, it disconnects.

    See http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080327-one-technical-key-to-net-neutrality-solving-tcp-congestion.html

  35. Re:Since msft was caught bribing Sweden by I'm+Don+Giovanni · · Score: 1 · on EU's Anti-Trust Investigation of OOXML Continues
    I said at the time that OOXML's fast track process should be terminated after the Sweden incident (even if just for PR purposes, if nothing else). Then OOXML would go to the slow-track. Of course, Microsoft didn't want to use the slow-track process because by the time that process completed years later, IBM would've convinced governments to mandate exclusive use of ODF, and thereby make it illegal to use OOXML (which was the ultimate goal of anti-Microsoft forces). But I thought that if that's the price Microsoft had to pay for an employee's stupidity, then so be it.

    That being said, the Sweden incident was much ado about nothing. Allow me to quote from an Arstechnica post by 'adminfoo':
    http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/174096756/m/718005041931?r=313007141931#313007141931

    Do you know the full story of Sweden? How one employee sent an offer to two MS partners, which suggested that those partners should join the Swedish NB, and that MS would in some way pay them back for the joining fees - said mail was deemed inappropriate by MS and a retraction was sent within hours. And it was MS themselves who reported the incident to the Swedish NB - had they not done so, it's possible that no one would ever have heard this story. In the end, Sweden's NB abstained because of other issues.

    (It is true that my given link is to a Microsoft employee telling the story - but you can find independent sources of the same thing if you look - and for all the scandal, no one has contradicted Matusow's more complete version of the tale.) BTW, IIRC, the fee for joining these committees is pretty small, so that doesn't provide much of a "bribery" incentive to begin with.
  36. OLPC? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Microsoft Extends XP For Low-Cost Laptops

    Please tell me OLPC isn't going over to the dark side. It's what I think of when I hear "ultra-low-cost laptops".

    I know that MS already had some team bring up WinXP on the XO with help from OLPC.

  37. one future of music distribution by xTantrum · · Score: 3, Insightful · on Apple Is Now the #1 US Music Retailer
    I for one am happy with apples gain in sales. it shows that if a satisfactory alternative for music downloads is available customers will pay. more importantly though this "cherry picking" shows the record labels that consumers are tired of the same market drivel and if you give us good content that we like we'll pay.

    i say "one future of music distribution" because i am also leaning towards this idea

  38. Re:Seems to be up now. by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · · Score: 1 · on A Screenshot Review of KDE 4
    Christ, I can't believe I'm having the same conversation with two different fanbois. Please read the thread before replying again - all of your questions have been answered already. Anyway:

    More to the point, saying "I didn't say ripoff, I said predated" is hilariously inept bullshitting

    Have you read the thread you're replying to? I was saying that Apple doesn't always invent - sometimes the ideas come from elsewhere. I don't believe any O/S vendors 'rip-off' each other.

    Try to look at it impartially, without knee-jerking about the author. Honestly, can you dispute anything he says?

    Yes, yes I can. He thinks that that Dashboard / Desk accessories / Konfabulator are the same because they're all small apps. That's bollocks. Konfabulator's value was in using XML / scripting / rendering engine to make writing small, networked applications trivial. Desk Accessories did nothing of the kind.

    Read this ars commentry on this issue & see if you can dispute what he says.

    Including this gem:

    The worst part of the misconception that Konfabulator and Dashboard are both obvious derivatives of Desk Accessories is that it adds nothing to the debate, regardless of its validity. The not-so-hidden agenda of the Desk Accessories connection is that "Apple did it first," therefore Dashboard did not copy Konfabulator, therefore Arlo and Perry have no reason to gripe. [emph mine].


  39. re: meaningless statistics? by King_TJ · · Score: 1 · on Microsoft's Vista Blogger Quits

    http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/03/03/tim-cook-apple-has-passed-dell-to-the-head-of-the-class

    It would seem from THIS story, students in the U.S. are definitely warming up to Mac purchases, contrary to your experience in Europe.

  40. Re:Seems to be up now. by hotfireball · · Score: 1 · on A Screenshot Review of KDE 4

    The context of the discussion is innovation, not who got it right. Taking someone elses idea & putting it in your OS is called integration, not innovation.

    *sigh*

    1. Integration is combining parts so that they work together or form a whole. Nothing common with refactoring the ideas.
    2. Virtual desktops: you mean "Stepping Out" feature that has been available in old Mac OS that has been created by Wes Boyd in 1986?
    3. Konfabulator: OK, you are one of those, who claims Dashboard is a rip-off, ignoring the fact of different code base, engines and markup. But probably you also have to remember "Desk Accessories" that has been available in Mac OS yet in 1984, and has been written as a device driver, conforming to a particular programming model.

    However, Konfabulator got it right - or do you disagree?

    I like real WebKit and ability to extend JavaScript with Objective C. The rest you can find here: http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/macosx-10-4.ars/17

  41. Re:Is this real? by croddy · · Score: 4, Informative · on Creative Vista Driver Modder Speaks Out

    Creative won a patent on the algorithm known as Carmack's reverse, which the Doom 3 engine uses extensively. To avoid patent license fees, Id shipped the Doom 3 engine with Creative's EAX shit in it.

    see: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20040728-4048.html

  42. Re:Why is KDE still not the mainstream? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on A Screenshot Review of KDE 4

    >Is is because it is mainly European based?
    Not 100% but there is something to it. Just like the way they put ext3 as default and almost zero support for XFS,JFS the like. May be ext3 is safer but I am willing to take the risk, but the work involved in making XFS work on the root partition is too much.

    Take a look at Gnome 2.22 review, they are polishing the interface, pixel by pixel now. I think they are on the right track, it just look professional. Look at the "2.20" and "2.22" comparison carefully.
    http://arstechnica.com/reviews/os/gnome-2-22-review.ars/3

    I cannot say the same thing about KDE. Although Gnome is more limited in terms of user customization, I still prefer it. If you put CDE, yes the old CDE side by side with KDE, I will take CDE anytime because it does not get in the way.

    Sometimes, features really does not sell.

  43. In re politely-spoken loser and chairs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0 · on Few of OOXML's Flaws Have Been Addressed

    I hereby promise to donate $5 to the Steve A. Ballmer Memorial Whoopee Cushion Fund provided that a) others match funds until a sufficiency for a really good one is reached, and b) a volunteer or volunteers come forward with credible plans to permanently affix same to SteveB's chair and/or pants at the next shareholder's meeting. Since the stock has been performing so well, and since the company has turned into such a good corporate citizen, let's let Steve know how much we really appreciate (or otherwise) him.

    I mean, seriously....Bozo the Clown could be a more effective CEO. We've really had enough of his Evil Twin. And, if I recall correctly, Good Bozo actually catches chairs.

  44. Re:About Time This Came Out. . . by Sark666 · · Score: 1 · on Canadian ISPs Limiting Access To CBC Shows

    I wish you were right, but it's not the case. Right now my provider (small dsl provider) is not throttling but I expect that to change very soon:

    http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080325-canadian-isps-furious-about-bell-canadas-traffic-throttling.html

  45. Re:This is bigger than comcast by tlhIngan · · Score: 2, Informative · on Canadian ISPs Limiting Access To CBC Shows

    I can only speak for my ISP in Canada (Shaw). They throttle Bit Torrent on the default ports it would appear, but not on any other ports. (This is based on my own informal speed tests.)


    Actually, no. Shaw uses Ellacoya units(warning, PDF) which perform deep packet inspection. These units, which have been recently tested (and Ellacoya is one of the two that had faith in their units), do not care about what port traffic is on. They inspect packets and throttle those like BitTorrent, regardless of what port it's on. The Ellacoya units faired quite well during the tests - identifying most P2P traffic, with no false positives.

    So far, encryption is the only way to foil these shapers, and there's lots of talk about the traffic shaping that Shaw does in the Shaw forums at DSL Reports. There's a link to Shaw's CEO saying they use traffic shapers as well.

    Of course, I think more and more BitTorrent clients are coming with encryption enabled. Eventually, I see everyone encrypting all traffic soon...
  46. Re:? Questions.?? by margretli · · Score: 1 · on Adobe Puts Free Photoshop Online

    Am I the only one noticing this "service" appears to be only intended for amateurs in image manipulation? No, apparently both Wired.com and Ars Technica noticed this is aimed at "amateurs".
  47. Re:It has begun... by rwven · · Score: 3, Informative · on Safari 3.1 For Windows Violates Its Own EULA, Vulnerable To Hacks

    Apple has already responded and said the EULA statement was an oversight. It's fixed in the next release and it's not binding anyway.

  48. Re:Lead the way by tux_deamon · · Score: 3, Insightful · on Red Hat to Coax Code Contributions From Companies

    That's because it uses an Oracle backend. They're working on replacing that component, and soon Sat will be opened. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070130-8737.html

  49. Re:Took them long enough... by zonker · · Score: 0 · on Justice Dept. Approves XM/Sirius Merger

    Wanna know why? Clear Channel. They own the FCC.

    A good Ars article on the subject:
    http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080325-clear-channel-to-fcc-wash-xm-sirius-mouth-out-with-soap.html

  50. Re:Opportunity for Third Party -- maybe even Linux by Technician · · Score: 1 · on The Death of Windows XP

    trying to force them off XP is going to represent an opportunity for someone else

    We noticed

    http://arstechnica.com/journals/apple.ars/2008/01/01/mac-os-x-market-share-sets-new-record-at-the-end-of-2007
    http://gizmodo.com/340117/mac-os-x-market-share-at-731-and-rising
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/1 The #1 bug is being worked on as we speak.
    http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/12068_3719096_1
    http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080104-evaluating-prospects-for-linux-growth-in-2008.html
    http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071205-microsoft-feeling-heat-from-linux-in-budget-flash-pc-market.html

    For me, I am enjoying Ubuntu Studio.