Slashdot Mirror

ExtremeTech has a much better look at the trials of buying an HDTV running this morning.

Here's a hint, Intuit: Copy protection of the "fuck with the user's hard disk" variety didn't work in the DOS era, and it won't work now -- it pisses off the very people you most want to make happy: repeat customers.

"The problem we're solving for is piracy," Bennett continued. "Last year, we got paid for only about a third of the approximately 15 million federal returns prepared and filed on TurboTax desktop products. With this year's TurboTax license, taxpayers can still prepare and file multiple returns from one PC. So while we don't expect to get paid for all of those additional 10 million returns, we believe many resulted from pass-along copies and will result in additional TurboTax sales. Now, for a small but very vocal group of people, product activation is a crusade. But for the vast majority of our customers, it's a non-issue. And for Intuit it's a big opportunity."

However, Intuit executives said that recent customer protests are largely made up of non-customers, with other, more malicious agendas.

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Intuit\TurboTax Premier Home & Business 2002 "ProductCode"
Type: REG_SZ
Data: 033076804774618766

At ExtremeTech, they've added a list of programs that use the Macrovision software. Autodesk and Borland appear to be the largest. Then there's a whole bunch more that use the SafeDisc technology.

Anybody else notice on the list of companies that use MacroVision included TransGaming?

Is this to help with Windows product emulation, or something more nefariuos?

Garg

The truth shall set your teeth free

The truth shall set your teeth free

There are several other benefits to IPv6 IETF is implementing while they are updating the protocol. They don't wish to do it too often for obvious reasons and will try to get as much useful stuff in the new version while they're at it.

IPv6...

- ... will support IPSec intrinsically to provide end-to-end security on protocol level.

- ... eliminates the need of NAT with special "local" addresses.

- ... supports QoS features.

- ... supports multihomed devices and load balancing, since an IPv6 address specifies a network interface, not a computer as in IPv4.

- ... uses "modularized" headers where only the necessary fields are used. This essentially makes IPv6 more optimized than IPv4. For example, if the payload of a packet is larger than 64KB, IPv6 will attach another field for "jumbo payloads" and set the 16-bit value to 0.

- ... contains improved multicast support (as an extension header), support for an authentication header (also an optional extension header), and an encryption header (also an optional extension header).

- ... provides enhancements for DNS.

- ... provides automatic neighbor discovery which is especially useful for ad hoc networks and wireless devices.

- ... has a completely rewritten adress autoconfiguration.

See also:
IPv6: The Promise, The Problems, The Protocol
RDC 2373

Personally, I feel that there are a wealth of smaller companies that Acacia will be able to sue or otherwise persuade to license their technology. Virgin was also a significant win.

Personally, I feel that there are a wealth of smaller companies that Acacia will be able to sue or otherwise persuade to license their technology. Virgin was also a significant win.

SuSE Linux 8.1 looks great, has the ability to run a majority of Microsoft products (it installs Internet Explorer on the Gnome Desktop), and even has a nice GUI for installation of Windows apps. What more could you want?

By the way, we also published a second story last Friday on the connection between Microsoft's SPOT smart objects and a wireless games distribution platform from Atari that was field-tested, but never produced. (You thought the Xbox was huge...) With pics!

Why not start porting some of the 2600 games to the X-Box? I'm still waiting for Custer's Revenge 2!

Uncle Fester was at Linuxworld and runs Linux!

At other tradeshows you get boothbabes...

But you got this guy!

It's got nothing to do with raw CPU power (regardless of the clock speed). Rather than rehash it all, read this.

Symbol has made WLAN phones over a year ago. I don't see the point, though. WLAN technology is great for bursty data connections such as web surfing, but providing QoS over WLAN connections is a challenge. Many access point support PCF (Point Coordination Function) but providing end-to-end QoS is a different story over public IP networks. In an enterprise LAN network this may work in small scale but if you have thousands of phones such as in a busy downtown center and try to maintain decent sound quality I bet you are in trouble.

Check this test by ExtremeTech. They had difficulties getting 4 uncompressed audiostreams over 802.11b segment. With compression this could improve by factor of 10x but without PCF bandwidth would not be evenly distributed.

Yes, I think we are able to do something like this. The question is whether this will ever be a big hit outside the geek scene.
Free Software/Open Source is one thing: You program once, have fun, and then release the compiled files together with the source. Of which the latter will be gladly ignored by the masses. But that's OK. They use the compiled version and are happy. And you are happy that your program is being used. That you also share the compiled version doesn't add extra cost for you because it's digital stuff that can be copied effortlessly.
But with hardware it's a different game, IMO. Even if you offer the schematics for such a multimedia all-purpose entertainment thing, someone still has to compile... ehh build it. This time it's physical so easy copying is not possible (unless you have access to a replicator somewhere). So, who is going to do this? People won't be willing to assemble stuff for themselves. Heck, even *I* used to do more myself when I was younger (and had more time and enthusiasm). Nowadays I buy quite a lot...
But maybe it's the chance for some garage company to just build the stuff based on open sourced layouts? Hmmm... Not sure that this will work either. What about distribution channels? One reason why Free Software/OSS has been so successful is that almost everybody has access to the Internet somehow and if a person knows the right address, he/she can download all that is needed. So, the distribution is more or less just a matter of getting people to know where to look. Physical things however have to be shipped, to be physically delivered by any means. And people will want to have a look at them in some kind of shop before they are going to buy them. (The gateway business model)
So the bottomline of my reasoning is, that I am quite sceptical whether it will be a big success. But it could be a reasonable (moral) succes within the geek community, so why not try? Just don't expect to see the equivalent of RedHat or SuSE anytime soon.

See?

At first I was going to say this was going to become a porn playground within minutes after launch. Then I checked out the screenshot. It looks like this would be realistic and entertaining only to those who still play old CGA Leisure Suit Larry games.

ExtremeTech did a review of the power-line networking tech back in April 2002; they have some comparisons of its performance relative to other networking technologies; the article in question can be found here. As it stands, the powerline networking was pretty slow; even 802.11b outperformed it.

Does anyone know of any other, more recent network tech shootouts? This was the most recent I could find for powerline. Extremetech has also done some testing on Bluetooth, for anyone who is interested in how it performs.

ExtremeTech did a review of the power-line networking tech back in April 2002; they have some comparisons of its performance relative to other networking technologies; the article in question can be found here. As it stands, the powerline networking was pretty slow; even 802.11b outperformed it.

Does anyone know of any other, more recent network tech shootouts? This was the most recent I could find for powerline. Extremetech has also done some testing on Bluetooth, for anyone who is interested in how it performs.

• The technology behind Segway is cool.
• It could work well inside a closed environment like a big warehouse.
• The inventor Dean Kamen has done other good things.

• Incredible hype before, during, and after release.
• Sneaky lobbying campaign to get these big kahunas onto sidewalks, so that pedestrians are giving up both space and safety to enhance Segway profits.
• Retail buyers will lose out big time in liability suits, not to mention that their Segways are going to get kicked off sidewalks around the country as other city governments, like San Francisco, realize how mad they make pedestrians.

Easy - some people are beginning to see the end of the expandability of our current technology, so they're introducing new standards now. If only those poor DVD bastards had figured that out, we wouldn't have all this +-R-RW-RAM blah blah blah nonsense. Look at the SATA game plan - the next generation of drives won't be out until mid '04, and the third generation not for another 3 years after that.

Besides, aren't there working serial ATA to IDE convertors already on the market? And what *is* obsolesce?

IHBT? Probably.

Of course, the Opterons haven't been shown at full speed yet. By all means keep posting flamebait and disinformation, though. Estimated SPEC scores have been available for a while. Here is the relevant snippet:

A single Opteron core running at an actual clock speed of 2.0-GHz with registered PC2700 memory yielded a SPECint2000 score of 1202, and a SPECfp2000 score of 1170, Weber said. He did not formally disclose whether the chip was a "Clawhammer" or "Sledgehammer" chip.

The scores for a Dell 3.06 P4 are 1084 SPECint, 1092 SPECfp. Not bad for 2/3 the clock speed...and much faster on integer performance than Itanic. :-)

Do you really think AMD's new .13 micron chip will top out at 2.0 GHz. in the near term?

The other beauty of Opteron is the ease of building multiway systems up to eight-way...as opposed to HYPErthreading. Personally, I prefer multiple real processors if I'm going to pay additional license fees...

I've been looking for a "do everything" DVD drive for a while. Still haven't found it. But I have found a couple of good spots on the net for DVD comparisons and info:
Extremetech DVD page

Extremetech dvd/cd page

arstechnica dvd a04 review with a great comparison table down the bottom.

I've been looking for a "do everything" DVD drive for a while. Still haven't found it. But I have found a couple of good spots on the net for DVD comparisons and info:
Extremetech DVD page

Extremetech dvd/cd page

arstechnica dvd a04 review with a great comparison table down the bottom.

My understanding is that the 802.11b RF bandwidth is currently limited by the 802.11b protocol.

However... a new variation of 802.11 -- 802.11g (yes "g", not "a") will increase the data rate to 54mbps. 802.11g is also supposed to be dual mode and support 802.11b clients.

(The link above is http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,21749,0 0.asp jeff

My understanding is that the 802.11b RF bandwidth is currently limited by the 802.11b protocol.

However... a new variation of 802.11 -- 802.11g (yes "g", not "a") will increase the data rate to 54mbps. 802.11g is also supposed to be dual mode and support 802.11b clients.

(The link above is http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,21749,0 0.asp jeff

Please direct me to the user(s) that claimed that being able to format your hard disk by visiting a website is a feature, and not a bug. I'd like to introduce them to my friend, Mr. Aluminum Bat.

If adding features to your product introduces potential for known exploits that didn't previously exist (the potential, not the exploits), then you don't add the features. Doing so is brain-dead. And *that* we can scream at Microsoft for.

If I know that language X was designed to be sandboxed by a bytecode interpreter, and I remove that sandbox, then I'm perfectly responsible for any behavior that didn't get contained by that code.

IBM refuted reports that it was phasing out its OS/2 operating system, saying the company is merely changing the manner in which it distributes its software.

Matthew Rothenberg kindly replied to my email querying about this. Here is the Macintouch item and here is
a more detailed story Rothenberg mentioned.

I've been saying this for months: if you run a wide-open AP, with the full knowledge that you are providing anonymous connectivity to others, you should not be surprised when someone uses that open AP to perform an illegal act, and the feds trace that act back to you.

It seems to me there are two methods of dealing with this sort of vulnerability. I will treat them as opposing and competing philosphies, for reasons that will become clear, but in practice both are often used.

1) You can move in the direction of giving the actor minimal power while requiring minimal accountability. Let anyone in on your network, even anonymously, they can futz around all they want, but they simply don't have the required privileges to damage your well-protected system. This is essentially the principle behind the Java sandbox, and behind the anonymous user account on a Unix system.

2) You can give the actor maximal power while requiring maximal accountability. Every move must be authenticated and recorded, however once given access the agent has the ability to manipulate and potentially damage the system from within. This is essentially the principle behind ActiveX.

Usually on a given network you will see some kind of combination of the two methodologies, encryption, permissions, access lists, antiviral programs, all working along various stages in the chain of communications to prevent damage by a hostile actor. However, despite these cooperative methods, I believe the two methods are fundamentally at odds with each other at a deep philosophical level. At their essentials, they boil down to Raymond's Cathedral and Bazaar. The Cathedral stands for maximal power for the actor. Here the Government strives to keep track of users and access points, and shuts down any unauthorized (anonymous) use. It restricting to itself the ultimate authority over who has the right to penetrate your system. (In this scenario the Government always mantains super-Superuser status for itself.) This requires you to trust your Leaders as infallible. The problem is, as we saw with that recent Active X debacle, once we have decided to "trust" someone, they now have the power to damage us, and particularly if it is a super-trusted authority, e.g. the government or Microsoft, the entire security method can be instantly rendered worthless.

The "Bazaar," or minimal power method, which builds security into the system from the outset by not allowing rogue processes any ability to compromise operation, is harder to implement, and rather unpalatable to the Government since even it can't escape the sandbox, but in the end it affords better protection for everyone because if any given user is compromised, that user can only damage him or hserself. In practice, of course, even a sandbox-type system can be vulnerable to exploits such as buffer overflows, but this is where open source shows its superiority, anyone has the ability to fix their own machine if so inclined, and indeed to pass such fixes along to be utilized and scrutinized by the community.

(Regarding the above, I tried to organize my thoughts since I had a lot of competing ideas going on in my own mental bazaar, but I fear I wasn't entirely successful in these few minutes. Sorry for any lingering incoherences, but hell, this is /., not a dissertation committee!)

Linux will be ready for the desktop when Gnome or KDE drop dead (I can't wait) and some consistency settles in. Until then, I'll run BSD on my servers (the documentation is much better as a result of the consistency) and Windows on the desktop.

Then you should look at
Xandros Linux
Which is based on debian/corel linux and is quite good

Or
Lindows

Or
Lycoris

All of these are quite good Windows replacments and they will get better. Have a look at each and their prices/policies. Lindows has click'n'run which you have heard of. Lycoris I have used and is quite good.

Reviews are available from

Xandros Review

Lycoris Review

Xandros Review

Xandros Review

Xandros Review

Lindows Review

Xandros Review

Lycoris Review

Xandros Review

Lycoris Review

Lindows Review

Linux will be ready for the desktop when Gnome or KDE drop dead (I can't wait) and some consistency settles in. Until then, I'll run BSD on my servers (the documentation is much better as a result of the consistency) and Windows on the desktop.

Then you should look at
Xandros Linux
Which is based on debian/corel linux and is quite good

Or
Lindows

Or
Lycoris

All of these are quite good Windows replacments and they will get better. Have a look at each and their prices/policies. Lindows has click'n'run which you have heard of. Lycoris I have used and is quite good.

Reviews are available from

Xandros Review

Lycoris Review

Xandros Review

Xandros Review

Xandros Review

Lindows Review

Xandros Review

Lycoris Review

Xandros Review

Lycoris Review

Lindows Review

Wow, you're in complete denial, aren't you? I doubt posting any kind of 'facts' or 'figures' would ever deter you from your vapid M$ fetish, but in response to your previous accusation that these people are uninformed...

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1107-958762.html

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,3973,9619,00 .asp

http://www.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/europe/06/17/eu.cook ies/

Forgot about the drives in my previous post.
Yes they're horribly slow, my external firewire drive at 5400rpm is a lot faster than the laptop's internal 4200rpm.
BUT! Rescue from slow drives is at hand!
See the following article at Extreme Tech.
IBM will soon give us 7200rpm mobile drives! I see myself spending more money on my laptop next year... Oh well.

Off topic: are the P4M and the ATI7500 in the IBM laptops "removable" at all? ;)

Enjoy!

Too bad they couldn't have tested this one too...

Bringing mobile gaming to new heights
nVidia GPU Delivers Fastest Mobile 3D Performance
Nvidia to launch NV28M at Comdex - The first known notebook design is slated for Q1 next year, from long time Nvidia partner Dell

By all appearances and specs, this case is either the Shuttle SS51G, or the recently released SB51G. According to most of the reviews I've seen of Shuttle's "XPC" line that these fall in, they're all fairly quiet and well cooled.

No, I don't own one, but the reviews have convinced me, and it's gonna be my next case. Take a look at the Tom's Hardware review for an example, or the more recent one from Extreme Hardware. Check 'em out, they're cool -- literally and figuratively :)

Extremetech.com has had some pretty good articles on "Rolling your own TIVO" going for a while on building your own system. Discusses hardware and software options.

I'd have to say I'd prefer LINUX, one reason being it was good enough for the commercial product TIVO.

A long time ago, in a career far, far away, I was a UNIX sysadmin. Later, I worked in technical marketing for a line of Unix graphics workstations. I was facile with vi, argued over which shell (Bourne? C-shell?) was best and manually installed early releases of X-Windows. So when people talk to me about Linux, I just sigh. Been there, done that.

Later, as I became more heavily involved in gaming, my home PCs ran MS-DOS and later, Windows 95. I covered the advent of Windows 95 for Computer Gaming World, and looked forward to never having to tweak another memory manager. Sure, Windows and DirectX brought along a different set of headaches, but as native Windows games arrived on the scene, life was good.

So in the end, I'm a Windows user. Note that I don't use the phrase "proud Windows user." That's not out of guilt, but out of pragmatism. I don't call myself a "proud Toyota owner," either. Windows happens to be a product I use that enables me to do other things -- and the things I want to do can't be done on other operating systems. Games are one example, but there are a host of apps I use that simply don't live on Linux, or even the Mac. I have one system here I use for experimenting with Linux, but don't spend a lot of time on it.

"But what about dual boot?" some people have suggested.

Get real. I want to be productive. When I play with Linux, I'd just as soon have a dedicated system. I've used dual-boot systems, and they're more of a hindrance than a help.

In the end, though, I always end up back at Windows. It really has little to do with any love for Microsoft. I don't particularly love Panasonic, either, even though I have Panasonic telephones. To me, the operating system is a useful utility in the same way as electricity or running water is. That doesn't mean I'm enamored of Microsoft's behavior as a competitor in the business marketplace. But then, I'm not happy about the way ADM has behaved in the past, but I still use corn oil.

In the end, it comes down to my own personal bandwidth. I have lots of hardware to cover, and I love covering it. Secondarily, there are a vast array of apps I love exploring, most of which simply don't run on Linux, and many of them aren't on the Mac, either.

http://discuss.extremetech.com/extremetech/message s?msg=22210.3

From a news article over on ExtremeTech. Some other interesting stuff about how hyperthreading sucks up the audio overhead on a sound card, too.

As always, we're a bit ahead of the DX cycle. Just as NV10 was beyond DX7, NV20 was beyond DX8 (there is still stuff in NV20 that is only exposed on XBOX and OpenGL).

The Nomad has a SNR ratio of 98dB. Experimentally it is 89dB. Can anyone give us the SNR for the iPod while we're at it?

There is some info about half way down on this page

From what I've read, CrossOffice runs well in Xandros. VMWare runs well in Linux. I think CodeWeavers and VMWare have done an admirable job (try running Virtual PC on the PPC platform, and you'll know how viable emulating x86 is on a current Mac) in satisfying the market for people who want to run Microsoft software without Windows.

Those utilities aren't running nicely in *nix/*bsd or even BeOS now, but they can. You gotta remember that most of the devs on alternative OS's would rather not run Microsoft software, so there's no major impetus to get WINE high up on the dev priority list.

Apple, on the other hand, would have a vested interest in having something like WINE around. And if they spent a few bucks, neat things could happen.

This is nothing new. Consider this 1997 article entitled "BMI automates copyright vigilance" ...

... or for something a bit more recent ... and a lot more disturbing House Debates Methods To Block Illegal File-Sharing.

No it is not available now. And why? see here:

"Rivet also admitted that AMD has "had some trouble" manufacturing Athlon XPs at 2400+ levels and above, a statement already proven by the delays in bringing 2400+ and faster products to market."

The PowerPC 970 triples the length of the PowerPC pipeline

This will give it the same issues the P4 has. Namely a large penalty for branch mispredicts, etc. Instructions per clock will decrease.

OTOH, they should be able to crank the speed!