Slashdot Mirror

There is currently no DVR that requires no monthly fees that has at least some rudimentary capability to acquire the listings.

Moxi
Windows Media Center
Beyond TV
SageTV
MythTV

None of these require any subscription for guide data or functionality, and the top two even have CableCard support so you can enjoy your HD content fix. TiVo Series2 units with DVD burners often come with a free "limited" subscription to TiVo's guide data, lacking the recommendations and ability to look more than three days in to the future IIRC.

Microsoft is soon to have free-for-consumers anti-virus and anti-malware software as well:
http://www.microsoft.com/security_essentials/

yes, PAE has been around forever infact you can enable it in Windows 32bit versions,
But it wont do you a lick of good in MS windows, except for a very few version of windows.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa366778(VS.85).aspx

Just squeeze your head... see subject-line above, rinse, lather, & repeat.

AND?

Can we have another "frothing @ the mouth episode" from you please, lol...?? They're funny when you do them, ala what I quoted from you in my 1st post here -> http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1345405&cid=29173127 , to which you yet again apparently have "stalked" me to, & admitted it was YOU that posted that (bragging about yourself, but lol, being unable to prove ANY of it, lol, where I could on the points you stressed though, lmao, "oddly enough")... you've got problems/issues, man.

The main one being able to spout a lot of "I AM SO GREAT" stuff, but not a shred of proof of it on YOUR end, lol, either... typical troll.

APK

P.S.=>

"Have you figured out yet that there are other operating systems out there besides Win32-based ones, and some of those actually allow you to access raw sockets?" - by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 24, @07:51PM (#29179929)

Yes, & YES... been @ these machines since, oh, 1981 or thereabouts, most all types in-between in fact. But, in response to your 2nd 1/2 of your reply?? See here:

RAW SOCKETS ACCESS IN WINDOWS CAN BE DONE FOR ADMINISTRATOR USERS:

----

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms740548(VS.85).aspx

PERTINENT EXCERPT:

"only members of the Administrators group can create sockets of type SOCK_RAW on Windows 2000 and later. Anyone can create a raw socket on Windows NT 4.0, but non-Administrators will not be able to do anything with the socket and operations will fail with an error code of WSAEACCES. Windows Me/98, do not impose any limitation on the use of raw sockets."

Just as I stated... &, I don't need other OS' to access RAW SOCKETS, in Windows, either! I have great documentations from MS that tell me ALL about it, & how to go about it, when/if needed!

----

"And amazingly, some of those operating systems really allow you to have the actual source code, so you can make changes yourself, and tweak your hardware drivers, and if you wanted to, to even make your own hardware to do what you want! Amazing!" - by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 24, @07:51PM (#29179929)

I can do the same in Windows, & get PAID for it though... filtering drivers too, so I can do exactly what I want from them with the pertinent data involved... layered drivers, filtering drivers, interfaces for ALL KINDS of hardware is there for it, & YOU SEE TONS OF THAT so... "Open Sores" OS' & such? They're neat in the open source thing, but that same thing allows for easier 'hacking/cracking' too, as well as easy fixes, because it's "Open Sores" - much easier to work on in both capacities, than using a 2 system setup & a kernel level debugger (or other types) to disassemble closed source code. That blade? CUTS BOTH WAYS, & this is why.

----

"The software world has really advanced in the two weeks since you posted your lament about not being able to access raw sockets. But since you're still in your Momma's basement, still wrapped around the axle over getting bitch-slapped when you started making threats on the internet, you probably missed the amazing advances made in the past two weeks. :-D" - by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 24, @07:51PM (#29179929)

Well, I am not the one saying "I am a millionaire/wealthy, & was a nose tackle in college etc. et al" as you have, without a single shred of proof now, am I? In fact, lol, I proved I had done those things myself... whereas you?? YOU HAVE NOTHING... because you are, a nothing/nobody. That's not MY fault... it's yours. Accept it, "drink that in, & digest it", won't you? When reality sets in for you, & you have proofs of your BIG WORDS??? Write us then. Until then? Go away little troll... apk

At $29 for users of the current version, it's inexpensive compared to the upcoming Vista service pack.

so on and so forth further r(e)aping profits from gullible custormers.

Distribute OS X for free and you'll bankrupt The Most Evil Software, Hardware, and Other Sundry Goods Company.

Yours In Socialism,
Kilgore T.

"Internet Explorer is out of date. Please upgrade to the latest version by going here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx We're sorry for the inconvenience."

These tactics ALWAYS work with these kind of people.

For remarkably small values of "ALWAYS". I have clients who not only refuse to encourage their customers to upgrade their browser, they refuse to upgrade from IE6 themselves. Knowing that much of my billable time is specific to IE6 issues, they'll pay that premium willingly - or, not hire me at all.

Can we please remember that x64 is a nonsensical Microsoft marketing term? Even Microsoft uses amd64 internally (eg, check the downloadable file names here). x86-64 is fine too.

"Internet Explorer is out of date. Please upgrade to the latest version by going here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-explorer/default.aspx We're sorry for the inconvenience."

These tactics ALWAYS work with these kind of people.

This is pretty much the selling point for Microsoft's BlueTrack (video at Amazon) as well. Theirs appears to be based on a blue LED and some optics picking up / processing the scattering, rather than dual lasers, but since they're more or less aimed at the same problem and claim similar success, I'd be curious how they compare.

Use Windows.

Sincerely,
K. Trout

This has been known for quite a while, with one pair of researchers speculating about how much time the average person would need, with a tool's assistance, to sufficiently hide their identity. A change of 14 words out of 1000 was sufficient to hide their identity pretty well against word-level attacks.

http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=69343

It is something of a cat-and-mouse game, for as stylometric analyses become more sophisticated, so will the techniques of obfuscation. However, as more of one's personal style is "blurred", the more likely it is that other as of yet undetected patterns will get swept along in the document alterations. In the end, obfuscation must win.

At this stage, you the individual don't benefit tremendously from cloud computing. But your company, at *almost* any head count, might be able to leverage what's also known as utility computing today. Depending on what it does or doesn't want to bother hosting internally.

Hosted Microsoft Exchange is a concrete example of a cloud (cloud-like) service that's been gaining ground for a while now.

Wired had a read-worthy piece on Azure's principal architect Ray Ozzie last year, Ray Ozzie Wants to Push Microsoft Back Into Startup Mode. Hyperbole aside, anyone who's directly interfacing with Microsoft sales people and engineers these days will tell you, Azure is a big part of Microsoft's next money grab.

However, it's amusing that the definition of "cloud computing" continues to mean different things to different vendors, as evidenced by Amazon, Google and Microsoft offering fairly distinct and non-overlapping services. Until they come into direct competition with one another, I think this is going to continue to be seen as a novelty by many CTOs and IT decision-makers.

Is cloud computing the future? I don't know, but I think it's safe to say it's *a* future. Even if it isn't yours. :)

You have no point... We are talking about the EULA for Win7, try again...

And does the EULA for Win 7 contain such a provision or are you just talking out of your ass to try and support an argument that isn't grounded in reality? I can't find the Win 7 EULA on Microsoft's page but I just read through the entire Vista EULA and they don't have a single provision relating to taking your licensed software across international lines.

Sounds like a good plan to me, what exactly is stopping them from doing this again?

The fact that it's not in the EULA? Common sense? A desire not to piss off people who travel?

We will see, if it does you owe me 20 bucks....

I prefer to make my bets for beer.

Visual Studio Express Editions: http://www.microsoft.com/express/

You think you can fool Microsoft so easily? Perhaps you can disguise your mouse and your IP address--but as soon as you switch your spelling dictionary to American English, they'll nail you.

Microsoft is like seawater. Everywhere, but poisonous.

Actually, what I want is REAL choice = REAL freedom.

In our current episode, Microsoft is playing games with the European regulators in hopes of appeasing them. In our last episode, Microsoft wanted to dictate Vista or DEATH! Wait, Microsoft didn't mean it. Now you can choose Windows 7 with only 35% of the awful and unneeded features of Vista! And at a special price, too. Such a deal!

Microsoft has become way to big to fail, which means too big to exist. Sooner or later they are going to fail. Whoops. Who am I kidding? Microsoft is constantly failing. What I mean is sooner or later they are going to fail so big and so hard that the economic consequences will be astronomical. This is TOO big.

Actually, I think the part that most annoys me is that Microsoft has actually become such a powerful a brake on progress. No software innovation is safe if Microsoft wants to kill it. My personal least favorite is what Microsoft did to Palm. Is it somehow supposed to be better because the entire thing was insincere? Now they've apparently decided to abandon that turkey?

From the 'positive' perspective, why would Microsoft want to innovate when they're already getting the lion's share? New versions? That's a decision for marketing! What year will be convenient for the next marketing campaign? That's the WRONG basis for improvements.

Suggestion: Cut Microsoft into 5 companies. Call them Microsoft A to E with a time limit before they need to pick new names. Give each of them a copy of the source code and 1/5 of the people and facilities and assets. Require them to compete. Windows can remain the standard OS, but they have to compete on the basis of the standard, and all changes and improvements to the standard must be discussed in public and agreed to, or the changes will be proprietary to that branch of the company.

Result? Real choice = freedom.

Side effect? As the code bases evolve over time, the single points of failure will be eliminated. Instead of 80% of the world's computers being at risk from one programming mistake, the risk will be greatly reduced.

Don't think of it as a penalty for success. It's an inducement to reproduce your company when you are successful enough. A new form of corporate evolution that increases our freedom while also creating more pressure for creative innovations and progress. (If you succeed again up to about 40% of the market, then your company should reproduce again, just to note the obvious.)

How do you feel about the Search Doggy in Windows XP?

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/crawford_september03.mspx

Too late.
http://labs.mozilla.com/prism/
http://www.adobe.com/products/air/
http://silverlight.net/
http://www.zimbra.com/products/desktop.html
http://desktop.google.com/plugins/
http://widgets.yahoo.com/
http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/sidebar-gadgets.aspx
http://www.screenlets.org/index.php/Screenshots

As other responders have pointed out, you can try WIndows 7 Ultimate (Release candidate) for free for a year so you can answer all your own questions. The 32-bit version works fine under Sun's free VirtualBox so you don't even need to dedicate a machine to it, just a few GB of disk space.

I downloaded it and installed it on a few machines and used it for a good amount of time, and I'm sure it's stable and fast and whatever, but the UI still makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I hate it for a thousand different reasons. Thank God I don't have to use it at work.

I tried the RTM on Friday. No Remote Server Administration Tools. Google turns up a blog on technet with a dead link to RSAT beta.

I guess going to download.microsoft.com, typing "Remote Server Administration Tools Windows 7" into the search box and hitting enter is too hard?

Because that would have - surprisingly, I know - worked?

np: Kode9 & The Spaceape - Addiction (Memories Of The Future)

I tried the RTM on Friday. No Remote Server Administration Tools. Google turns up a blog on technet with a dead link to RSAT beta.

I guess going to download.microsoft.com, typing "Remote Server Administration Tools Windows 7" into the search box and hitting enter is too hard?

Because that would have - surprisingly, I know - worked?

np: Kode9 & The Spaceape - Addiction (Memories Of The Future)

you forgot to mention that it also does a lot of things worse

Which you then fail to list?

...but requiring hardware produced in 2010s. switch the aero off and the remains will not even equal the clean nice look of windows 2000

Utter b.s., it runs perfectly well on a two year old laptop.

you probably meant most amateur computer users.

Yeah, you know, those people who buy and use a product and make it profitable and the de facto standard? Yeah them. Also me.

being hdmi is irrelevant. resetting display settings is not that annoying. moreover, most good cards come with utilities that overcome this xp bug and you switch the monitor and resolution on the fly from cards' utility

No, resetting the display settings IS annoying and, furthermore, bullshit. But that's what happens when you are using an ancient OS to run hardware that didn't even exist when it was made.

LOL. on my old 1GHz/512ram/pata hdd i have 22 seconds from ntldr to busy cursor gone. windows 7 doesn't even install on that

Funny you should mention installing, Win 7 installed in maybe half the time that XP takes for me. I don't know what you're doing at bootup but mine takes about 20-25 seconds in Win 7.

so does media player classic home cinema. even better.

I'm well aware of mpc homecinema, I use it as my primary video player. However, the media centre in Win 7 has a nice media library built into it which is designed to look good and work well on a plasma, and to be used with a remote if you have one.

then you're probably not using windows explorer at all. and right clicking on taskbar items to bring up the applications' system menu, neither. and the start menu shutdown-confirmationless item, also

No, I am not using IE, I didn't realise I had to use it if I wanted to use Windows.

does this (1Gb ram, 16 Gb hdd) look modest to you ?

Yes. Yes it does. It's 2009 for Christ's sake. You can build a system with 4 gigs of ram and a 500 gig hdd for a few hundred bucks.

... at making impression to home users. in enterprise, this is just a second vista. joining a samba/nt4 domain is a pain in the ass or impossible.

Amazingly, most of the people in these enterprises you speak of are the same 'casual users' you dismissed earlier.

you forgot to mention that it also does a lot of things worse

Which you then fail to list?

...but requiring hardware produced in 2010s. switch the aero off and the remains will not even equal the clean nice look of windows 2000

Utter b.s., it runs perfectly well on a two year old laptop.

you probably meant most amateur computer users.

Yeah, you know, those people who buy and use a product and make it profitable and the de facto standard? Yeah them. Also me.

being hdmi is irrelevant. resetting display settings is not that annoying. moreover, most good cards come with utilities that overcome this xp bug and you switch the monitor and resolution on the fly from cards' utility

No, resetting the display settings IS annoying and, furthermore, bullshit. But that's what happens when you are using an ancient OS to run hardware that didn't even exist when it was made.

LOL. on my old 1GHz/512ram/pata hdd i have 22 seconds from ntldr to busy cursor gone. windows 7 doesn't even install on that

Funny you should mention installing, Win 7 installed in maybe half the time that XP takes for me. I don't know what you're doing at bootup but mine takes about 20-25 seconds in Win 7.

so does media player classic home cinema. even better.

I'm well aware of mpc homecinema, I use it as my primary video player. However, the media centre in Win 7 has a nice media library built into it which is designed to look good and work well on a plasma, and to be used with a remote if you have one.

then you're probably not using windows explorer at all. and right clicking on taskbar items to bring up the applications' system menu, neither. and the start menu shutdown-confirmationless item, also

No, I am not using IE, I didn't realise I had to use it if I wanted to use Windows.

does this (1Gb ram, 16 Gb hdd) look modest to you ?

Yes. Yes it does. It's 2009 for Christ's sake. You can build a system with 4 gigs of ram and a 500 gig hdd for a few hundred bucks.

... at making impression to home users. in enterprise, this is just a second vista. joining a samba/nt4 domain is a pain in the ass or impossible.

Amazingly, most of the people in these enterprises you speak of are the same 'casual users' you dismissed earlier.

XP Pro supported 2 processors, so for most people that would be fine (assuming most people have single or dual-core CPUs, not quad-core).

See here: http://www.microsoft.com/licensing/highlights/multicore.mspx

Windows XP Professional can support up to two processors regardless of the number of cores on the processor.

XP will run on a 2x quad core machine or even more powerful, as long as it is not more than two physical cpus.

A proper new secure OS from Microsoft would have to pull the same trick Apple did. Throw the old OS in a box, allow it to run in the new OS, and kick all old APIs to the curb. A good start would be the Singularity OS Microsoft has in it's research labs.

Second that! Singularity is awesome.

Here you go. Found it at the bottom of the RSAT forum page from MS. RSAT for Windows 7

It will be unsent, but not always

I'll see your one local privilege escalation and raise you 6 remote code executions, two privilege elevations and a DoS (and thats just for August)

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms09-aug.mspx

If you are wiping a hard disk to reassign within a company, and the hard drive isn't requiring top security, I've found that using HDDErase and DBAN are a good combo. HDDErase performs a complete erase on the controller level using ATA firmware commands (zeroing even the relocated sectors), then following up by usage of DBAN will put the chance of any recovery past anyone but the most determined.

Bonus points if you use TrueCrypt or BitLocker, so to ensure that a HDD is wiped, you just do a quick format, or a once over with zeroes. If you format a BitLocker drive in Windows 7, the format command explicitly zeroes out the areas with the volume keys on it making it impossible to recover the rest of the volume (more info here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc512654.aspx).

Expensive is a relative thing. And according to Microsoft, it's $199 for an upgrade and $299 to buy, which for many represents about half the cost of their computer.

doing a quick install using the COA numbers on the case stickers.

Did you read and agree to the EULA on these? I'd be pretty surprised if those COAs were legal to use except on the original hardware by the original customer.

Total cost to us: ~$45 and 4 hours Total profit: ~$155

When the -knock- comes at your door ... you can use that profit to hire a lawyer to tell you that you're screwed. 155/4 = $38.75/hour, which is not going to be high enough to get more than an hour or two of lawyer time.

So let me get this straight: suppose I purchase two computers, and resell one to my parents. That makes the COA illegal for them to use? http://www.microsoft.com/howtotell/content.aspx?pg=coa is not really informative, could you explain why I would need a lawyer?

Actually the older the software, the easier it is to make copies and put it on multiple machines. Once the software reaches online activation, it cannot be copied so easily without beating the activation scheme.

Anyway as it turns out Microsoft is giving away free downloads of MS-Word 5.5 for MS-DOS so that old systems can run it for free. The direct download link is here in EXE self extraction format. It is the Y2K fix for MS-Word for DOS 5.5 and under and released as a new version instead of a patch or update. Microsoft felt that releasing a full DOS version would be easier than update older versions of MS-Word for DOS going back to Word 1.0 and up to 5.5. So those still using DOS or looking for a DOS word processor can take advantage of MS-Word 5.5 for DOS for free.

In general, MS KB articles with 5 digit numbers are old ones, as the system moved to 6 digit numbers long ago. Interestingly, right now the system is moving to 7 digit numbers: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2000011

Rule #3 of the 10 Immutable Laws of Security: if a bad guy has unrestricted physical access to your computer, it's not your computer anymore.

Story should serve as a good reminder to everyone out there that in the end, no amount of encryption, biometrics, or obscurity will protect your network when a hacker brings a gun. Physical security trumps all.

From my viewpoint the changes made in recent releases of DirectX are no small matter, to label such things as "minor shader effects" shows your ignorance of the subject. The DirectX SDK contains wonderful documentation if you are so inclined to learn.

I'm not arguing for or against Microsoft platforms but the fact remains DirectX is currently the de facto standard in creating games. And even though it's a COM based technology, it's still kinda fun to play with.

ehh? Microsoft has an OS that is suited for such devices. Either windows embedded CE or Windows Embedded nav ready.
Or even the CE derivative Windows mobile.

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windowsembedded/dd630116.aspx

"They then inform you that if you don't like these terms, you can CHOOSE TO RETURN THE BACK SEATS FOR A REFUND."

That's not actually in the OEM Windows agreement. It says that you can see what the manufacturer's return policy is, but nothing says that you will get a refund. That's up to the manufacturer. Take a look.

You (conveniently?) left out part of the agreement:

"By using the software, you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, do not
use the software. Instead, contact the manufacturer or installer to determine their
return policy for a refund or credit."Link

It seems to me like the manufacturer could just say that their policy is no returns, like Lenovo is doing.

mail come in physical form?

Of course, don't you know how much does information weight?
 

Replying to myself, with additional information for the OP: And how long have we heard about this? We're already so used to Windows exploits that we don't even care much about them...

Generally people don't care about local privilege escalation on Windows. Like this vulnerability.

Don't know if any remember Allegiance. It was a space 3d combat game with resources and objectives and building units and the like, but one player was designated the commander, and he viewed the entire battle from a tactical perspective, ordering units to go do objectives much like in an RTS.... the players would get the orders he gave them as objective way points and the like, but it was up to them to actually pursue them (or not). And the commander could assign better resources (ships, missiles, etc) to people who carried out his orders better (or just on whatever criteria he wanted). It was not a persistent game in terms of continuing combat (though there was some kind of overall campaign scoreboard based on which factions won), but the RTS/Personal dual nature described here reminded me of that. I played and enjoyed it for awhile but moved on at some point. The game had a fairly steep learning curve and for new players to jump into the thick of it against people who had mastered the basics was intimidating. I gather it wasn't a financial success for Microsoft, who developed it, and some time back they open sourced the entire thing. There are still that support it, though haven't checked on it in a long time...

There is more than one URL: Adobe's Flash settings widget. You have settings_manager03.html. Adobe has been recommending settings_manager07.html.

The Flash updating tool is very buggy. It may update only your installation of Opera, instead of Opera and Firefox. If you have multiple installations of Opera, it will update only one of them.

In Windows, it is necessary to use the Replace.exe command to replace all instances of flashplayer.xpt, NPSWF32.dll, and NPSWF32_FlashUtil.exe. The latest version of the files is located at C:\WINDOWS\system32\Macromed\Flash after updating one installation of one browser.

As someone else mentioned, if you're still running Windows 2000 desktops, your support ends officially in 7/13/2010 if you are paying for extended support.

If your company is not already looking at what needs fixed to upgrade from IE6 and at least defining a plan of action complete with cost estimates, they are going to get screwed.

Then the death date of IE6 is 7/13/2010, but only if you're paying for extended support.

Umm, sounds like MS is complying with the BSD license to me! They're keeping the copyright statement in, and presumably anybody who gets a copy of whatever BSD licensed source in ftp.exe would still get the original BSD bits under BSD. For the second clause (copyright notice for the binary), see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306819 maybe? (Yes, the Windows XP release notes.)

They're quite free to add non-BSD licensed bits to it, of course, and still be compliant. They're also quite free to ship binaries under a different license. All that doesn't change the license of the original source code.

What's not okay is removing the original copyright / license. (There was an attempt to do so in one of the patches to the Linux kernel a while back; uproar ensued, the change never went in.)

Obviously you have not heard of the Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb648760.aspx

I've not had a chance to use it, but as a product that has come out of the research wing of Microsoft, it may actually be quite good. Now, if only it ran on Linux....

It seems that someone has already thought about this. Robotics Studio has these types of features already.

In fact, I've written and demonstrated several programs that will run on a wide variety of robotics platforms without any changes in the base code itself. It's a services based architecture that is extremely flexible.

Bill

A lot of the web office apps are free, yet Office costs $99 for the student/home edition.

Three seat license.

With student ID and 0.5 credit hours MS Office 2007 Ultimate is yours for $60. The Ultimate Steal

If your employer participates in Microsoft's Home User programs Office is free for the price of S&H the disks.

If you can afford a printer, you can afford MS Office.

Windows ("Client") and Office ("Microsoft Business Division") are more profitable, but Microsoft reports significant income from "Server and Tools":

http://www.microsoft.com/msft/reports/ar08/10k_fr_dis.html

From the viewpoint of an investor, Microsoft is a fairly transparent company, most of the numbers are out there:

http://www.microsoft.com/msft/default.mspx

Windows ("Client") and Office ("Microsoft Business Division") are more profitable, but Microsoft reports significant income from "Server and Tools":

http://www.microsoft.com/msft/reports/ar08/10k_fr_dis.html

From the viewpoint of an investor, Microsoft is a fairly transparent company, most of the numbers are out there:

http://www.microsoft.com/msft/default.mspx