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The MIDI issue seems to be getting actively worked around with third party software (a new development that I was unaware of until I went to get you a link), but the source is the Vista README file itself.

There are thousands of articles about downscaling for non-HDCP monitors on the web, including a few on Slashdot. Here's the first one from Google:

http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/12/vistas-co ntent-protection-badness.html

Again, there are thousands of articles online about the inability to do automatic echo cancelation on Vista. Here's the first result from Google:

PC World - Vista crippled by content protection

Bill Gates has given billions of dollars in charity, so he is not a bad guy, he just likes to play dirty ... check out this article... "It will use a low-power Intel processor running either the Linux operating system or Microsoft's XP Starter Edition, a stripped down version of the Microsoft OS for poorer countries."

Other planted articles that are startlingly similar:
The actual verisign press release with a cute graph
PC World with a seemingly verbatim copy of the press release
Again from Tech News World
And C|Net's news.com.com even copies the fun and [extreme sarcasm]ever so statistically meaningful[/extreme sarcasm] graph

It is nice to note that VerisSign's Nasdaq abbreviation appears in all of these articles within the first sentence. So I wouldn't be too worried because its not surprising that VeriSign wants us to fear keyloggers.

Integrated Cargo System (ICS)

The cornerstone of CMR, ICS is an integrated system giving enhanced risk assessment at the border and allowing more efficient cargo tracking. Its software suite has 23,000 function points.

It operates on an IBM OS390 mainframe [they mean zSeries] running z/OS with transactions in a CICS environment with DB2 database management. MQ-series provides the mainframe interfaces with the CCF gateway and other business applications. [CCF is a Customs communication system, I believe].

Customs' Web-based user interface, Customs Interactive (CI) has a WebSphere Java application server front end. CI system software is hosted on infrastructure managed as part of the CCF gateway.

...

Design detail in the 19,000 pages of analysis for ICS includes 800 screens, 16,000 business rules, 70 complex business messages, 850 database tables, 3700 executable load modules, 1800 CICS transaction types, 55 batch jobs, 90 reports and 35 system interfaces.

So they certainly didn't pick a few cheap PCs running the latest whizbang toyware. This is solid, proven hardware. CICS is the "old faithful" of massive transaction processing, DB2 is an old workhorse learning new tricks these days, and WebSphere is a good J2EE app server (if quite complex) with good support. And MQ is a robust guaranteed-delivery messaging system on which you can run JMS and other messenging frameworks. Overall, good choices.

I'd say that the problem is the complexity of the software... 23,000 function points? 1800 different transactions? A system of this complexity cannot reasonably be created in such a short time frame (2 years). They probably had a Mongolain hord of the lower bidding coders develop this thing without time to do any cross-project concertation, and it smells of overburdened teams working in isolation, trying to implement paper specs that aren't waterproof.

You want slow integration with a succession of prototypes for such a project. I would bet this prototyping phase was too short and that integration of parts written by isolated teams was rushed.

If you know an IBMer working in WebSphere or MQSeries on z/OS, you can ask him to bring you back a souvenir from AU, 'cuz chances are he'll be there a lot soon...

The article also answers other posters questions about the platform it was delivered on. Certainly no cheap linux stuff used here !

But really interesting is this:

A number of service providers were retained to develop and implement systems: Computer Associates' consortium with Kaz, IOCORE and NCR for applications, IBM for professional services (and some hardware and software under its arrangement with Customs outsource partner EDS), BeTrusted ( now Cybertrust )for PKI software and services for the Customs Connect Facility (CCF) "gateway", Novell for identity management and directory services software, and VeriSign for GateKeeper

With so many cooks in the kitchen, shouldn't problems be expected ? How could you ever figure which one can is responsible for the mess now emerging ?

Open-source projects sometimes have more cooks, but could the commercial agendas in a closed source project with patents etc.,. destroy the synergies ?

I see only 2 weakpoints the win2k systems and the implementation of the Java handling in websphere. Other than that theres no reason any individual part should be failing, the entire thing is built from dependable parts.

I just guess no one properly considered that it would be handling
"3 million import entries, 1.2 million export clearances, 4 million container and 100,000 flight movements, and the collection of nearly $7.5 billion in Customs duties."
And remember... each one of those is likely to involve between 10 and 25 or more individual forms and checks and clearances...
This isnt realy unexpected

http://www.infoage.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1158761 497;fp;4;fpid;71937704 gives some more details on it I believe, looks mainly java IBM OS390/DB2

What OS do they run?

What software do they use?

CA, NCR and IBM are the service providers; Novell's providing the directory service.

The ICS (Integrated Cargo System) application is running on an IBM OS390 mainframe; the OS is ZOS, the database is DB2. The web interface is Java, using WebSphere.

The CCF (Customs Connect Facility) runs on Sun Solaris Unix platforms (using a variety of other servers for validation and transformation). Again, the database is DB2 and the interface uses WebSphere Java.

More information here.

Computer World Article

ICS is a cornerstone of Customs' massive Cargo Management Re-engineering (CMR) project. This was intended to replace the export and brokerage industry-developed EDI system Customs Connect with a Web-based model co-developed by Customs and a consortium of IT vendors led by Computer Associates. The project aims to facilitate all aspects of Customs involvement in the import and export process including declarations and GST transactions collected at port.

Nother Article
More than seven years to this point of readiness, ICS is a cornerstone of Customs' massive Cargo Management Re-engineering (CMR) project, which will replace the export and brokerage industry-developed EDI system, Customs Connect. CMR is a Web-based model co-developed by Customs and a consortium of IT vendors led by Computer Associates, EDS, IBM and Telstra nee Kaz.

I did a google on the author and came up with: http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php?authid=109 8416642 After reading the article and looking thru the list of previous articles, I can safely say Joris has no credibility on anything non-Windows.

If you look about the web, Australia has already announce trials in Canberra for it and in some other places the progress, I believe, is more advanced.

And here is a piece of info that shows the increase in downloads doesn't mean an increase in market share by the browser.
PCworld article

On your first point. The Windows VM is in no way horribly slow, in fact it's a very elegant VM, comparable to Java, although not as mature. VM's however, are bloated by definition compared to native code. Show me a substancially better VM out there than .NET. Java is good, and mature, but inferior in concept... and available on windows from the same primary vendor I might add which is not an advantage for Linux. The NT SMP has always been the best in the business, orders of magnitude faster than Linux until the 2.4 kernels. SMP reperation was the big push for 2.4 precicely because of how much NT kicked it's ass. The NTFS File system has no peer in security; it's the best, hands down, and not too shabby on speed either. I have no idea why you picked NT's strongest points as examples here. You could have chosen examples like GNU/Linux being leaps and bounds ahead in cluster support, standardization of code, small footprint, intelligent RAM allocation and file caching, HID responsiveness, a sane file locking strategy, better all around browsers, better interoperability, etc... but Net Stack, VM, SMP and File System are things that NT did right. Where Windows truely excels, however is the proliferation of highly polished workstation applications, ease of configuration and live updating. And games, but that's just the popularity of the platform speaking. there are many examples of linux security holes. Try being on the gentoo mailing list for a bit, you'll see how secure this "bullet proof" OS is. Security is an issue for everyone right now and open source is just as vulnerable. Windows gets targeted more than Linux because it controls much more of the machines out there making for a target rich environment. Recent reports have not shown OSS to be substantially more secure. You can however make an arguement that at least with OSS you have the chance to close the holes yourself or do your own code audits, which IMO is a very nice bonus. And as for your last point, my arguement was not in speed of development. Both OS's have been progressing rapidly. I simply said that just because MS approximates release dates and misses them does not, by itself, show development to be slower on Windows. Linux does not set dates at all, so it is an unfair comparison. And before you peg me for a windows enthusiast, I'm typing this on Firefox, from my gentoo workstation, mantained via CFEngine on my primary server, alongside my performance cluster of gentoo boxes, behind my Linux firewall. I've got 2 machines here (out of 18) that run Windows. 1 is a test machine I use to verify my products still work under Windows, and my girlfriend's laptop. I much prefer Linux, as it is a much more sane development environment and is perfect for all my clustering needs, and I happen to think it's the best OS out there for my uses. That doesn't mean that Windows isn't ahead in a few areas.

http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1002274 598

"The code, in yellow, can be printed on a line as thin as 0.1 millimeter."

  -Charles

As for physical objects, someone posted a link where a company selling a physical object (some sorta woodworking tool) has a EULA for it when you buy it. And per the EULA you can't sell the object without getting written permission from the company.

As for Cisco, yeah. Check thier page:
http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/csc/refurb_equipm ent/swlicense.html
"My company would like to re-sell or re-lease a used Cisco product that runs software that is no longer sold by Cisco. Can I purchase a license in this case?

Cisco will only sell licenses for current versions of software. This means that to use Cisco software in conjunction with the equipment to be transferred, a license for the current version must be purchased"
Some info here:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/04/11/15gripe_ 1.html
"He also said companies that buy used Cisco gear from authorized channels have an easier time getting software licensing and support because they are included with the sale of a Cisco Authorized Refurbished Equipment product.

"If I go out and buy a box off of eBay, not only am I ineligible for a Cisco warranty, I have to buy a software license and pay for a Cisco inspection to make sure the box is in working order," before support can be purchased, Karmin said."
From: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3649/i s_200405/ai_n9439262
"Blanket prohibitions against licence transfer have been standard language in software licence agreements for many years. Only after the dotcom bust did it occur to hardware manufacturers that they could try to enforce them. IT managers report that Cisco Systems in particular has been aggressive in its demands for relicence fees."
"I made the mistake of showing a visiting Cisco rep the 2611 router I'd purchased on eBay for $1200," says Mark Payton, director of IT at the Vermont Academy. "Not only are they asking me to pay to relicense the software, but they are expecting me to get a one-year SmartNet maintenance agreement and to pay an inspection fee."

Although Cisco is only asking Payton for slightly more than $300 each for the software relicensing and the SmartNet agreement, the inspection fee alone is more than $850. Payton is still negotiating with Cisco. "If my sales rep can't get some of those costs waived, the total cost to me for the 2611 router is over $2700. Brand new through CDW without my additional discounts, I could get this same unit today with one year of SmartNet for $2300."
From: http://www.infoage.idg.com.au/index.php/id;9035707 40;fp;4;fpid;675408222

I'm sure there's more info on the net if you want to search around.
Essentially Cisco says its a liscense you are getting (not the ownership of your copy of the software) so they can control it anyway they want.

Traditional big-tube CRT's truly are nearing the end of their lives. That's OK, though. There are a couple of new display technologies that will have the speed of CRT's, so that field-sequential stereo should be possible.

These are SED and OLED displays. Both of these displays are getting closer, after being available Real Soon Now for years.

Toshiba and Canon have built a small factory in Japan for building SED TV's, and they claim to be shipping them this year. Yesterday, they announced a new plant for building these in quantity. SED's actually are CRT's, and share their brightness, wide field-of-view, and color purity -- but they differ from CRT's in that they have a seperate semiconductor electron gun at every pixel.

Samsung just announced a 40-inch OLED a couple of days ago. There are still problems to be worked out -- especially with the lifetime of the blue OLED material -- but there is tremendous activity in the field.

Both of these technologies can switch pixels on and off in at most a couple of milliseconds, so field sequential stereo should be possible.

Thad Beier

Indeed - Linus has already explained the reasoning behind this name.

He is right that the most revolutionary years for personal computing are yet to come, but the "PC", as defined by an Intel Processor + a Microsoft operating system, is dead. That doesn't mean that the PC is somehow vanishing or becoming irrelevant. Mainframes and minicomputers were once also thought to be obsolete, but those platforms continue to be used widely today. It simply implies that, like its predecessors, the PC will remain important, but its central role as a driver of innovation in the technology industry is waning. The real growth and innovation is happening with new kinds of devices that are definitely "personal", but have a completely different design from the classical "PC". For example, worldwide mobile phone sales jumped 30 percent in 2004, reaching 674 million units. That compares with PC shipments that grew 14.2% to 176.5 million units. Other devices like handheld music players are just getting started. These types of devices will define personal computing for the vast majority of users in the future, not PCs.

Now, what about this champion of webcasters and enemy fo the RIAA who happens to be a lifelong Republican? Guess you don't read Slashdot that much...

What about this Republican? Just in case you read PCWorld....

Here's a few Republicans against the RIAA. Wow. Must not use Google much, huh whitroth?

How about this Republican taking a swing at the RIAA?

And finally.... One of the RIAA's main champions is.....DEMOCRAT!

God, I hate smug bastards. Especially ones who use cute little terms like "Reptilians" and don't even know a Rpeublican is spearheading an investigation into the RIAA. Google Search for those who can't do it themselves.

I am pretty sure they are civil, and the court order was obtained from a civil court.

This is also not the first time this sort of attack has been carried out, a year or so ago a court order was taken out against the largest ISP in Australia, Telstra

For anyone interested there is a lot more information about this People Telecom raid at http://whirlpool.net.au/

"The RIAA and MPAA are suing the hell out of people downloading their material even though they're content with letting people selling bootlegs of their product(which is actually stealing money from them)."

Interesting, I've never seen that observation before. I read news items about bootlegging crackdowns all the time, such as this recent one and this one; it's an issue that's gotten to the point that governments are involved. Do you have a cite for your claim that the RIAA and MPAA are content with letting people bootleg their products?

Source

"As a result of the sales forecast revision, the company also revised its financial forecasts downward for the year to the end of March. Nintendo said it expects consolidated net sales to be YEN 520 billion (US$5 billion), a drop from the previously forecast YEN 540 billion, while net income is now forecast to be YEN 70 billion, a drop from the prior forecast of YEN 90 billion. Despite the revisions, consolidated net sales and net income are still expected to grow by 1 percent and 111 percent respectively for the year."

Still very good. But slowly the tide is changing...

If you have to get five other suckers to sign up in order to get your iPod, it's a pyramid. At least with MLM outfits like Herbalife, you can theoretically make money selling the pills and without building a downline.

Turns out that only 4% of the FreeiPods.com suckers have gotten their units and they're being spammed, too. It most certainly is a pyramid scheme.

"ethical business practices." Funny.

Make your addresses links next time so that Slashdot doesn't muck them up. You probably would have noticed this if you had previewed your message.

200Mbps shock for Broadband over powerlines

"Paul Krill, Infoworld" seems to specialize in breathless, high-anxiety stories about rather ordinary events.

InfoWorld
PC World

First, this is not uncompressed video (the writup is wrong)! If you RTFA is says "capture video in MPEG 1/2/4, AVI and Windows Media Format". That's not uncompressed, its just compressed less. The way the article says this makes it sound like they're talking about uncompressed video, but they're not.

Next, PC World gives 33.75 MBps (yes that's bytes, not bits) for unconpressed TV. Don't forget that each pixel requires 3 or 4 (depending on color space) 16-32 bit numbers (depending on depth used. That's a lot of data!

Yes I know it's Internet2 and only links universities, industry and goverment for research purposes but still I'm sure the MPAA got their panties in a bunch over that qoute. Couldn't they use the standard measurement for data transfer speeds like how many times it can transfer the entire Library of Congress in a second?

The 3.6 gig prescott puts out 115 watts

This article puts the 3.2 and 3.4's at about 103 watts.

This article pegs the Athlon 64 at 116 watts.

Yeah, you are engaged in CPU tribalism/fanboyism, whether you realize it or not. Both chips are pretty much equally "hot". One should use a different yardstick to compare the two.

BTW, this article has the Itanium sucking 130 watts, which is probably where the misinformation came from.

According to PC World, only data CD-Rs can't be played. Burned audio CDs will still be supported.

and in english there is this article as well http://pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php?id=1652243086& fp=2&fpid=1

And there is even a poll about online proposals. tres funny
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/idg2.nsf/AllPCW/B4CB 7211ACD6DC8ECA256B6100059A17!OpenDocument&NavArea= Home&SelectedCategoryName=News

Another article confirming this...
From Australian PC World
Here

Australian Reseller News also has a short story that tells of Intel's latest Celeron offering, the Timna - available in January...

Today, an Anonymous Coward (whose initials are Travis Simon) reported the death of a Programmer belonging to the cult of Free Software.

It appears that he was hacking on some project, when he spontaneously starved to death. This is yet another in a long string of unexpected starvations.

Unfortunately, the dead programmer was not available for comment.