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Slashback: Embed, Dougal, FireWire

Slashback this evening brings you a few corrections, updates, amplifications and reversals -- read on for more on the Xbox key cracking project, the new version of FireWire, and more.

Reality is just an illustrator's concept. In regards to the speculative piece about what animals will look like in the future, Ken Colangelo writes: "The author of After Man was Dougal Dixon, not Dougal Adams. He's got a pretty long track record as an amazing bio-illustrator.

He had, at one point, spoken of a book he was working on called "Man After Man" I believe. This would discuss what man would evolve into. In any case, I am probably his biggest (only?) fan and would appreciate it if you'd tell slashdot to correct his name ... This guy clearly needs to be working in speculative evolution again, now that computer graphics have caught up to his abilities. Animal Planet just doesn't seem to be that great at it."

A bit more on that secret FireWire, since it's no longer secret. cwill1004 writes "As was speculated yesterday, it turns out that Apple is indeed including a new higher-speed FireWire on its new laptops. Dubbed IEEE1394b, it appears to be primarily for external storage devices. One article on the Storage Supersite says that LaCie, Maxtor, SmartDisk, and Indigita have already hopped on board. The best part: IEEE1394b is backwards compatible, and available on both Mac and PC."

Perl undoes simplicity itself. ljb writes " I've re-written Tom Murphy's 'embed' bit-flipping program in Perl. At 76 characters (shorter than a standard 80-character width terminal line), I believe this qualifies as a Perl "one-liner". Heck, you could even fit this on an old IBM punchcard (ignoring character set limitations). Here's the Perl script --
$/=\4;map{?OS/2?|$f&&$f++==2?$c-=2+vec($_,0,32)/4: ++$c||s/../\0\0/s;print}<>"

So get distributed crackin' ... scubacuda writes "On. Off. Now it's on again? According to PC World (et al), The Neo Project again tackles the challenge of cracking Microsoft's encryption key."

254 comments

  1. hooray for distributed computing! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Thank goodness for hive mind software

  2. Is that legal by yourmom16 · · Score: 1, Informative

    The Neo Project again tackles the challenge of cracking Microsoft's encryption key." Isnt this prohibited by the DMCA?

    --
    "We have got to make Stan understand the importance of voting, because he'll definitely vote for our guy." - South Park
    1. Re:Is that legal by DarthWiggle · · Score: 0

      According to 17 USCA Ch. 12 Sec. 1201(a): "No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. The prohibition contained in the preceding sentence shall take effect at the end of the 2-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this chapter."

      It may only present a cause of action for Microsoft if cracking the key may be construed as circumventing controlled access to a particular copyrighted work. Does the key do that? Or does the key serve to authenticate software running on the box?

    2. Re:Is that legal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, it's not prohibited by DMCA. Unfortunately, it is prohibited by 21st century computers.

  3. and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by RebelTycoon · · Score: 4, Funny

    ljb and his Perl code from hell...

    Here's the Perl script --
    $/=\4;map{?OS/2?|$f&&$f++==2?$c-=2+vec($_,0,32 )/4: ++$c||s/../\0\0/s;print}"


    we can all sleep better knowing that bits can flip in 76 characters... I hope this was a school assignment!

    I guess some people find pleasure in this.. Personally I prefer women.

    1. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by EricWright · · Score: 4, Informative
      I hope this was a schoold assignment

      Three words: perlgolf.sourceforge.net

    2. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by flacco · · Score: 4, Funny
      Here's the Perl script -- $/=\4;map{?OS/2?|$f&&$f++==2?$c-=2+vec($_,0,32)/4: ++$c||s/../\0\0/s;print}"

      I guess some people find pleasure in this.. Personally I prefer women.

      Well, me too, but I silently recite things like this to myself to keep from blowing my wad too fast.

      --
      pr0n - keeping monitor glass spotless since 1981.
    3. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by RealAlaskan · · Score: 5, Funny
      we can all sleep better knowing that bits can flip in 76 characters... I hope this was a school assignment!

      I guess some people find pleasure in this.. Personally I prefer women.

      Women? For flipping bits? You are strange.

    4. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      "I guess some people find pleasure in this.. Personally I prefer women."

      At least he's found his pleasure... ;)

    5. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by iapetus · · Score: 5, Funny

      I prefer women who find pleasure in 76-byte Perl scripts for bit-flipping. :)

      --
      ++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
      Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
    6. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Shit, and I just wasted the last of my mod points. LOL

    7. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by TheGratefulNet · · Score: 4, Funny

      I pleasure women who prefer bits.

      no, wait; that didn't come out quite right..

      --

      --
      "It is now safe to switch off your computer."
    8. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by Idarubicin · · Score: 3, Funny
      I prefer women who find pleasure in 76-byte Perl scripts for bit-flipping. :)

      I'm sorry; I'm as much of a geek as the next guy, but if your women are finding pleasure in Perl scripts, then you're doing something horribly wrong.

      --
      ~Idarubicin
    9. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by RollingThunder · · Score: 3, Funny

      No, the women just like having their bits flipped. ;)

    10. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by Black+Copter+Control · · Score: 5, Funny
      Women? For flipping bits? You are strange.

      I don't know about you, but my bits get flipped by attractive women on a regular basis.

      --
      OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
    11. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by skaffen42 · · Score: 2

      76 bytes? I thought by now everyone knew it's not the size that matters - it's how you use it that counts!

      --
      People couldn't type. We realized: Death would eventually take care of this.
    12. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by Mikey-San · · Score: 1

      You just posted that on Slashdot. Stop lying.

      -/-
      Mikey-San

      --
      Mikey-San
      Karma: +Eleventy billion (mostly affected by watching Celebrity Jeopardy)
    13. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by gosand · · Score: 4, Funny
      Well, me too, but I silently recite things like this to myself to keep from blowing my wad too fast.

      Yep, nothing like a good ol' Perl necklace.

      --

      My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.

    14. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by DickBreath · · Score: 2

      I guess some people find pleasure in this.. Personally I prefer women.

      Women, no thanks. Programming is more fun. Guys are more fun. Geek guys are even more fun.

      --

      I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
    15. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by darkonc · · Score: 2

      Let's just say that it's an autoexecute functionm....

      --
      Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
  4. I have Man after Man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    It's good, weird, but good.

    My only problem with Dougal is his alleged theft from Barlowe. Still, his stuff is primo.

    1. Re:I have Man after Man by potaz · · Score: 1

      Yes, humanity managed to get one colony ship off before succumbing, and the decendents of this ship return eons later, after having genetically modified themselves to the point of unrecognizability, and with no special knowledge of earth, and basically exploit the life there until there's nothing left.

    2. Re:I have Man after Man by Red+Rocket · · Score: 1


      I have Man after Man

      Why does everyone keep talking about their sex life in this thread?

      --
      - Hail to our fearless misleader! Fool speed ahead!
  5. Bad links already!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    The Dougal Dixon link is bad, or it's just been slashdotted I think.

    1. Re:Bad links already!! by k-0s · · Score: 1

      no it's fine, the problem is it has two "http://"'s in the link...remove one and you're fine.

  6. "Compatible" by Gorimek · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The new Firewire is signal compatible, but it has a new plug. So you need adapters to plug old cables into the new PowerBooks.

    Haven't heard of why they did this, but I guess they had a reason. Hopefully a good one.

    1. Re:"Compatible" by Overzeetop · · Score: 1, Troll

      Of course, it won't matter. Only Apple would put forth a "revolutionary" new product which offers a measly 2x improvement. Note to technologists: please offer an order of magnitude (give or take) before making us by everything over again.

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    2. Re:"Compatible" by mbessey · · Score: 5, Informative

      Just so you know:
      There is one "classic" Firewire port and one Firewire 800 port on the 17" Powerbook. So no need for an adapter.

      I remember hearing somewhere that the Powerbook comes with an adapter so you can plug old Firewire cables into the Firewire 800 port, but I couldn't find any confirmation of that on the Apple site.

      -Mark

    3. Re:"Compatible" by isolenz · · Score: 4, Informative

      The new Firewire is signal compatible, but it has a new plug. So you need adapters to plug old cables into the new PowerBooks.

      Actually, the new powerbooks (as awesome as they are) come complete with an 1394 AND 1394b connections. So users won't need adapters, they'll just have two ports for their firewire peripherals. If the user takes up all the bandwidth on the 400mb/s port, he can then get an adapter for the 800mb/s and keep on adding new devices.

      Apple will think of any problem like this before release, and then fix it.

      -isolenz

    4. Re:"Compatible" by SoCalChris · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Only Apple would put forth a "revolutionary" new product which offers a measly 2x improvement. Note to technologists: please offer an order of magnitude (give or take) before making us by everything over again.

      The bandwidth of firewire is extremely high, especially compared to other competing technologies like USB1.0. I think doubling the bandwidth is pretty impressive.

      I do agree with you however that they should have tried to keep the original plugs for compatibility, but who knows, they probably had a good reason to use a new style.

      Besides, how much would it cost to go out and get a new IEEE1394b daughterboard for your computer? A USB2.0 card can be had for under $50, so I would imagine the new IEEE1394b will be around there pretty soon anyways. It's not like you will have to go replace your entire computer and perephials to use the new technology.

    5. Re:"Compatible" by Detritus · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'm not going to buy a new car until I can find one with a top speed that is an order of magnitude higher than my current car. I don't want to hear any whining about the difficulty of designing cars that are aerodynamically stable at Mach 1.2.

      --
      Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
    6. Re:"Compatible" by AJWM · · Score: 5, Informative

      The 1394b spec actually calls for speeds up to 3200 Mb/sec, being an 8x improvment over the 1394a spec (800, 1600 and 3200 vs 100, 200 and 400). The spec also calls for cable lengths up to 50 meters over plastic fibre, as I recall.

      The current Apple implementation may be a price/performance trade-off.

      --
      -- Alastair
    7. Re:"Compatible" by 90XDoubleSide · · Score: 5, Informative

      Firewire 800 uses 9 pins instead of 6, and it uses optical cable to get longer range (100 meters on FW800 vs. 4.5 on FW400 and 5 on USB2). See the Apple FireWire page.

      --
      "Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
    8. Re:"Compatible" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The new connector is for the extra wires that allow for the signal to be transmitted over a longer physical distance. I think something like 10m versus the "old" standard that was no good over 5m.

      Of course, this is 3rd hand information... but that is the explanation I heard.

      # insert <grain_of_salt.h>

    9. Re:"Compatible" by Jeriki · · Score: 1

      USB 1.0 isn't really a competing technology; USB 2.0 however is, and at a peak thoughouput of 480Mb/s it's nothing to dismiss.

      --
      -witty .sig
    10. Re:"Compatible" by cheezedawg · · Score: 2

      You mean like the new Dodge Tomahawk??? (its the bottom link)

      --
      "The defense of freedom requires the advance of freedom" - George W Bush
    11. Re:"Compatible" by Overzeetop · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Now that's what I'm talkin' about. 3.2 Gb/s is a worthwhile number. I can see this as a potentially useful tool for memory-based photoshop swap-files, or truly fast portable downloads.

      For those who might question that there isn't a soft spot in my heart for Apple, ya'll should know that I cut my digital teeth hand assembling 6502 machine code one summer...just for fun.

      And for those who scoffed at my 10E+1 requirement, or used physical comparisons (my folks brand new Audi has a CD player which can't read a CD-R, how can I expect revolutionary results anywhere in the auto industry?) it is typical for a factor or 8 or 10 to go by before most folks upgrade.

      Network speeds are nicely partitioned - 10, 100, gigabit. Cds to DVDs are about 8x in storage. Blu-ray, or HD-DVD, or whatever takes over will probably have to see another 6x-10x to be really useful. I'll admit that most processor jumps are in 2x increments, but - I'll be honest - I rarely buy each iteration, preferring to skip two at a time (6502+64kB to 8086+640kB to P75+8MB to K6-350+128MB to P4-2.4+384MB...soon to be a gig... being my upgrades) with minor tweaks along the way. 33.6 to 56k modems? Yawn - I got at 56 'cause my 33.6 broke ant there was no price difference. I bypassed starband and waited for DSL.

      There may be very few applications for 3.2Gb transfers right now, but they will come. I paid $110 for my first firewire card, and it was a bargain at that price. It still serves me well for DV transfers. I'll worry about FW2 when I have to stream uncompressed HD @ 1920p around the house.

      --
      Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
    12. Re:"Compatible" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So I guess Monster Cables can reap a fortune for distributing "better" and "hi-definition" digital fiber cables...

    13. Re:"Compatible" by JPawloski · · Score: 1, Redundant

      Firewire would be nice if more devices supported it. Unfortunately, Firewire is looking like SCSI, and USB is looking like IDE/ATA.

      Sure, no one who knows what they are talking about would argue that USB is better, but they will say that USB comes with more computers, and is cheaper for device manufacturers because of it's compatibility modes. eg. You won't see a firewire mouse with a $1 tranciever that allows it to plug right into PS/2--or a Firewire to Parallel & Serial adapter.

      I really think Firewire missed the boat on making it easy and cheap for device manufactuers to add Firewire support to their devices... USB obviously didn't.

      Firewire's main advantage is it's speed (which still doesn't come close to Ethernet--which further narrows Firewire's market) over USB, but I suspect, if they don't do a better job enticing device makers, Firewire could just as well disappear in favor of USB everywhere.

    14. Re:"Compatible" by Phs2501 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      This really seems like a bad comparison. Find me a computer that ships with Firewire ports and NOT with USB ports.

      USB has it's niche in cheap, slow (12Mb/s) devices. Firewire has one in devices that need to go fast (disks) or get guaranteed bandwidth (video). I don't see why these need to be mutually exclusive.

      And, um, sir, if you think Firewire's speed doesn't come close to Ethernet, take a look at latencies on Gigabit Ethernet sometime - and the costs of Gigabit Ethernet controllers compared to Firewire ones. It is not nearly as suited for real-time activities as Firewire. 400Mb/s is nothing to sneer at, and that was Firewire 1.0!

    15. Re:"Compatible" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      Firewire's main advantage is it's speed (which still doesn't come close to Ethernet--which further narrows Firewire's market)


      How exactly does it not come close to Ethernet? 10Base-T doesn't come close to firewire, neither does 100Base-T, Gigabit ethernet and Firewire 800 are close to the same speed. However, they're for completely different purposes.
    16. Re:"Compatible" by ionpro · · Score: 2, Funny
      ...aerodynamically stable at Mach 1.2


      Dude, your car goes 206 MPH? That's one hell of a speeding ticket...
    17. Re:"Compatible" by geekoid · · Score: 2

      if every 2 years the top speed of cars increased drastically, you might have had a point.

      --
      The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    18. Re:"Compatible" by zizzo · · Score: 1
      Haven't heard of why they did this, but I guess they had a reason. Hopefully a good one.

      Profit strikes me as a fine reason. Bought any cables or adaptors lately?

    19. Re:"Compatible" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just paint it red, slap some stickers on it, and yell "AKIRA!!!" everytime you take off.

    20. Re:"Compatible" by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 2

      What base system is that?

      Isn't the hypothetical original number Mach 0.12? I thought that Mach 1.2 would be an order of magnitude in the base 10 system larger than Mach 0.12. A quick approximation puts Mach 0.12 at about 84 MPH, not 206.

      Oh well, I'm tired.

    21. Re:"Compatible" by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 2

      I'll worry about FW2 when I have to stream uncompressed HD @ 1920p around the house.

      Wouldn't that be 1080p? Picture modes in TV are specified by the number of active scan lines, not the dots per line. 1920x1080x24bppx30fps nets about 1.5 Gbps uncompressed. 1920p uncompressed would be about 47Gbps.

    22. Re:"Compatible" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Way to cut and paste troll boy. God, trolling trolls trolling trolls.....

      http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=49818&cid=50 51575

    23. Re:"Compatible" by SoupIsGoodFood_42 · · Score: 2
      Of course, it won't matter. Only Apple would put forth a "revolutionary" new product which offers a measly 2x improvement.

      What about the 100m range? I think that it's the copper that is only twice as fast. I think the fiber was quite a lot more. Why not take a look for yourself?

    24. Re:"Compatible" by emoon · · Score: 4, Informative
      From Macintouch discussion on the new PowerBooks
      As the name implies, it is an 800Mbps implementation of the IEEE-1394b standard. It utilizes a new connector, dubbed bilingual, and developed specifically to support the new interface. As before, there are connections for signals as well as power. There is still no guaranteed power spec for supplied bus power. With an appropriate adaptor, FireWire 800 bilingual connections can be used with legacy 6-pin or 4-pin connections, now dubbed FireWire 400.

      FireWire 800 peripherals should be compatible with existing, slower devices provided the right adaptor cable is used. LaCie FireWire 800 products (see separate announcement) include 2 cables - a "FireWire 800 to FireWire 800" and a "FireWire 800 to FireWire 400 (6-pin)". The FireWire 800 connector is called bilingual, as it signifies the interface is compatible with legacy as well as new, faster interfaces.

      IEEE-1394b also specifies a "beta" connector option. This is for FireWire interfaces that cannot be used at the lower, legacy and compatible speeds. Detailed information is available at the Molex website.

      So the new plug is a feature enhancement, not a brazen way to force people to buy new cables...whenever someone ships FireWire 800 only products
    25. Re:"Compatible" by pro-mpd · · Score: 1

      It's not like you will have to go replace your entire computer and perephials to use the new technology.

      Unless it's an Apple product, or a laptop. Or both.

    26. Re:"Compatible" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Sorry, you are incorrect.

      This page was written by marketroids, and they missed the entire point.

      IEEE 1394b defines several different PHY (physical layer) specifications in order to have the same basic signaling methology.

      The PHY's specified in IEEE 1394b are the standard copper (the 9-wire cable you mentioned) for speeds up to 800 mbps at 4 meters, UTP-5 w/ an RJ-45 connector for speeds up to 100 mbps at 100 meters, and 1000-micron plastic optical fiber (POF) and 50-micron multimode fiber for up to 3.2Gbps at varying distances. I don't know how many of these PHY's have been adopted, but they're in the standard (kind of like 1000baseCX 50-ohm balanced copper cables w/ DB-9 connectors for GigE that have never been produced).

      Calling IEEE 1394b "Firewire 800" is a misnomer. It is in all reality a very adaptable, wide-reaching standard for high-speed serial bus applications.

    27. Re:"Compatible" by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 2

      USB 1.0 isn't anything significant. You can't even find it in devices. That would be USB 1.1

      USB 2.0 isn't anything to dismiss, granted, but I'd like FireWire 800.

      Notably, the 17" PowerBook G4 also sports a FireWire 400 port, so no extra cables needed for current FireWire.

      --
      That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
    28. Re:"Compatible" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      My Gilette runs at Mach 3 and it sure as hell makes my ass aerodynamically stable.

    29. Re:"Compatible" by smithmc · · Score: 1


      Is the new plug shaped like a little Apple-with-bite-missing?

      --
      Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
    30. Re:"Compatible" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      hmmm - having just bought a new 1 Ghz Powerbook without the new 800 Mhz firewire port. I DO happened to have a spare PCMCIA port and since my Airport card has it's own slot, do ya think someone might offer a card if I wanted one...?

      Where do these idiots come from???

    31. Re:"Compatible" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      My Gilette runs at Mach 3 and it sure as hell makes my ass aerodynamically stable.

      It must be hard to drive backwards though.

    32. Re:"Compatible" by itwerx · · Score: 2

      Cool! The Tomahawk goes 400mph!!
      For those who haven't clicked on the link yet, be aware that CNN's page "trapped" my Chimera 6.0b browser, I couldn't get back to Slashdot!!! (Waah!)
      Not to mention the link lands you at the "Avenger" which looks like crap, as does every other car on the page! (Except the T'Hawk of course :).
      Here's a direct link to the Tomahawk.

    33. Re:"Compatible" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Haven't heard of why they did this, but I guess they had a reason. Hopefully a good one.

      It's probably just an instance of the connector conspiracy.

    34. Re:"Compatible" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hopefully someone will mode up my anonymous post... but the reason for the new connector I was given by those in the know about FW2, is that the old connector had serious signal distortion problems at the higher data rates. Anyhow, I doubt Apple has stranded anyone, according to other posts -- it comes with a legacy FW connector also.

    35. Re:"Compatible" by Lars+T. · · Score: 4, Informative
      Pure theory. Reality. More reality. Need I go on?

      Gotta love Google ;-)

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    36. Re:"Compatible" by Miksa · · Score: 0

      That's interesting what you say about ethernet, since in our building we use firewire to connect our Cisco switches to each other.

      --

      Begging for modpoints since '03
    37. Re:"Compatible" by GnrcMan · · Score: 2

      Haven't heard of why they did this, but I guess they had a reason. Hopefully a good one. Oh, they had a good reason. The best, in fact: They want to sell lots of little adaptors. :)

    38. Re:"Compatible" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's what you get for using open sores product.

    39. Re:"Compatible" by Sri+Lumpa · · Score: 2


      On their Firewire webpage at www.apple.com/firewire they say at the bottom right:

      "Cable and Adapters: ... Get a Belkin cable from the Apple Store to use your FireWire 400 devices on the FireWire 800 port."

      So, no you need to buy an extra cable to connect a 9 pin (firewire 800) device to a 6 pin (firewire 400 with power supplied to the device by the cablle) or a 4 pin (firewire 400 without power supplied by the cable) port and vice versa.

      FYI at the Apple Store the cables cost $30 (or £19 in the UK) for a 9-6 cable of 18 inch, $40 (£30) for a 6 feet one and $50 (£40) for a 14 feet one. A 6 feet 9-4 cable costs $40 (£30).

      --
      "The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers." Bill Gates,
    40. Re:"Compatible" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My Gilette runs at Mach 3 and it sure as hell makes my ass aerodynamically stable.

      You're using it wrong if it's your ass that's stable.

    41. Re:"Compatible" by Pii · · Score: 2

      Are you talking about the "Gigastack" modules in the 2900 and 3500 Series switches?

      --
      For those that would die defending it, Freedom
      has a sweet taste that the protected will never know.
    42. Re:"Compatible" by cheezedawg · · Score: 1

      Thanks for the direct link- I didn't bother sifting through the javascript to find it.

      --
      "The defense of freedom requires the advance of freedom" - George W Bush
    43. Re:"Compatible" by Olinator · · Score: 2
      Blockpoth the quoster (with broken tags re-HTMLed):
      ...aerodynamically stable at Mach 1.2
      Dude, your car goes 206 MPH? That's one hell of a speeding ticket...
      Um... Within your group of friends, are you always the "last to know" person?

      Because it would appear sound travels awfully slowly in your vicinity... For the rest of us, the speed of sound (Mach 1) is a little under 770 MPH, and Mach 1.2 would be 900+ MPH.[1]

      The citing officer would have to have a hell of a squad car... I guess that'll be the end of the Ford Crown Vic franchise -- they'll be underbid by Lockheed Martin.

      Ole


      [1]: Speed of sound through air at sealevel, assuming "average" ambient temperature, pressure, and humidity, is roughly 761 MPH. See FREX the aerospace web faq.

    44. Re:"Compatible" by Alsee · · Score: 2

      the difficulty of designing cars that are aerodynamically stable at Mach 1.2

      Actually that is easy. The hard part is Mach 1.0 where stability gets shot to hell.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  7. bitflipping by banks · · Score: 3, Funny

    Perhaps ljb is running his bit-flipping script on The Neo Project....

    On, Off, On, Off.....

    --
    --Use this space for notes--
  8. X-Box Crack & Cheating by timeOday · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Cheating is the bane of online gaming.

    I find closed systems distasteful, too, but wouldn't it help out a lot with cheating?

    1. Re:X-Box Crack & Cheating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      No. Even if the source is closed, someone will generally find a way to intercept the protocol (like the quake aimbot proxy cheats).... Stuff like that... Open source just lets everyone look over and fix vulnerabilities.

    2. Re:X-Box Crack & Cheating by Derek · · Score: 3, Insightful
      I find closed systems distasteful, too, but wouldn't it help out a lot with cheating?
      Sure, the same way that the new homeland security act will help prevent terrorism...

      -Derek

    3. Re:X-Box Crack & Cheating by timeOday · · Score: 1
      No. Even if the source is closed, someone will generally find a way to intercept the protocol (like the quake aimbot proxy cheats).... Stuff like that... Open source just lets everyone look over and fix vulnerabilities.
      Ineresting, but I'll bet a closed box could use encryption to defeat snooping. And unfortunately cheating vulnerabilites aren't bugs that can be fixed (or in other words, with access to the source or executable they can be un-fixed.)
    4. Re:X-Box Crack & Cheating by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's the stupidest response I've ever heard. I resent the U.S.-led war on rights too, but that comment (snipe) of yours is absolutely retarded.

      Just thought I'd let you know.

  9. Man after Man by potaz · · Score: 5, Informative

    He did finish the book "Man after Man". The basic idea was that we genetically engineer about 3 or 4 different races (plain dwellers, undersea people, etc.) and then end up dying off when the magnetic poles reverse. The rest of the book shows how these races evolve over the next thousands of years. Pretty neat stuff, lots of pictures and thought put into it.

    1. Re:Man after Man by RatBastard · · Score: 2

      I have read both books and sgree with you. I think my favorite "After Man" animal was the land-bat (I don't know the name, it's been years since I read the book) who's wings had evolved into legs, thus having the beast walk on its hands. While unlikely, it was interesting.

      --
      Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
    2. Re:Man after Man by Zepalesque · · Score: 1

      What I found most refreshing about this book was that it didn't assume the evolution of human-kind would result in an intellecutally superior species. Rather, many seemed to to be guided more by instinct.

      I think my favorite was the memory people (I may have the name totally wrong here). Basically, occasionally tapped into the memories of their descendents to give them a survival edge... ala Bene Geserit -ish.

    3. Re:Man after Man by charon_on_acheron · · Score: 1

      "thus having the beast walk on its hands. "

      So, this guy originated the Sebulba character in Phantom Menace? :^)

    4. Re:Man after Man by potaz · · Score: 1

      It was predictable, but I liked how the aquatic people worked their way onto land when they were running out of food in the water. First they made it ashore with self-manufactured spheres of salt water around them, eventually they got to the point where they were skin-tight. They Aquatics (that was their name!) were still slow and lumbering on land and made for good prey, however.

    5. Re:Man after Man by dgoodman · · Score: 2

      I would also like to point out that I got my copy of _Man After Man_ nearly a decade ago...talk about stale news!

    6. Re:Man after Man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Memories of their decendants? WOW people who havent been born yet??

      I think you mean their ancestors..

    7. Re:Man after Man by Jeremy+Erwin · · Score: 2

      It was the Night Stalker, Manambulus perhorridus. Dixon proposed that bats had colonised a newly formed island (Batavia), and their descendents later filled many niches. ('The streamlined aquatic surbat is descended fom a conventional flying bat ancestor. Its flippers, formed from what once were wings have become stubby and muscular')

      Dixon also wrote The New Dinosaurs about the continued evoluton of the dinosaurs (at the expense of the mammals).

  10. Cool, but a waste of time by Dougthebug · · Score: 3, Funny

    While I think most distributed computing projects are pretty cool, this xBox thing seems like a waste of time.

    Microsoft will have gone open source by the time they break that key...

    1. Re:Cool, but a waste of time by BigMike · · Score: 1

      But then, people buy lottery tickets too ...

    2. Re:Cool, but a waste of time by nfg05 · · Score: 1

      I found a very interesting comment in the discussion on the Neo Project story, which suggested that someone already knew the key and the project was a scam that would magically "discover" the key in a few months. Still, even if the key was cracked by the project (wink, wink), the Neo Project would be right in the crosshairs of MS if they ever tried to put the key out to the public.

    3. Re:Cool, but a waste of time by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Saying that, wont the key just get 'published' anonymously somewhere from what you say (wink wink)?

  11. Very compatible by Shishio · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The new Powerbooks that have the new Firewire (Firewire800, if you will) also have a standard Firewire port. Both original and Firewire800 devices can be plugged in at once, but as you posted, there is also an adapter to convert the newer port to original Firewire.

    Surprisingly, I haven't seen much said about the possibility of much faster Firewire RAIDs. Using the adapter to have the Firewire800 port act as a second Firewire bus would get some great speeds.
    BareFeats does a lot of work testing Firewire RAID setups. There should be some tests there once the new Powerbooks are more readily available.

    --
    Twelve fingers or one, its how you play. ~Gattaca (Vincent)
  12. proof that perl is a bad scripting language? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    How in the world does the perl interpreter allow for such obfuscated code? With something like C or even Python it's impossible to produce such horrible code.

    Compact form, sure, but not exactly understandable.

    1. Re:proof that perl is a bad scripting language? by Dougthebug · · Score: 2

      "With something like C or even Python it's impossible to produce such horrible code."

      Ohh, I don't know about that... you #define enough times and you can make some pretty confusing stuff...

    2. Re:proof that perl is a bad scripting language? by Greyfox · · Score: 2
      I beg to differ.

      You can produce absolutely hideous C code without even having to resort to #define. You just have to put your mind to it. And C++ has been known to cause spontaneous nosebleeds in programmers, particularly when template metaprogramming is involved.

      --

      I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?

  13. Re:Here is a copy of the article in case it gets / by DAldredge · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Damn it! The AC posts a COPY of the SLASHDOT article and gets moded up.

    Did they restrict moding to idiots?

  14. Re:Here is a copy of the article in case it gets / by EricWright · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I'm sorry... I found this amazingly funny! Yet another twist in the grand SlashDot Social Engineering project...

    Maybe it's just the first time I've seen someone do it, though.

  15. Re:Here is a copy of the article in case it gets / by Longjmp · · Score: 1, Funny

    My first guess actually was a new slashdot editor practicing to post duplicate stories

    --
    There are fewer illiterates than people who can't read.
  16. Re:Here is a copy of the article in case it gets / by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    whats the point in cracking the MS code? It doesn't do anything, its window dressing! The perfect crack is to remove it. |dev/nul...

  17. I have Man after Man by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yup, good book. Actualy the premise is humanity designs a few different versions of itself but ends up leaving the planet (and those other versions) behind when things get bad. Evolution takes it course and they evolve into various other sub-races (Speaking of which, Niven did this well with his hundreds of different human species in the Ringworld books).

    In the end, what became of the branch that left the Earth ends up returning millions of years later.

    Interesting read.

  18. Note on backwards compatibility by djupedal · · Score: 2, Redundant

    Firewire 800 uses a different port/connector. Yes, you can connect(legacy) Firewire 400, but you will need an adapter at the port.

    1. Re:Note on backwards compatibility by 90XDoubleSide · · Score: 2

      You don't need an "adapter at the port", just a nine-pin to six-pin cable, in the same way that you need a six-pin to four-pin cable to connect a camcorder to a FireWire 400 port.

      --
      "Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
    2. Re:Note on backwards compatibility by djupedal · · Score: 2

      And if you don't have this magic cable?

      Sounds like an adapter to me :)

    3. Re:Note on backwards compatibility by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      For saying something as dumb as, "You don't need an adapter, you just need an adapter", you get the Clusterfart Idiot of the Day award! Congratulations! Your prize is a one way trip onto my foe's list!

    4. Re:Note on backwards compatibility by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 2

      It's not like a DVI to VGA adapter.

      If you have a USB printer, you don't say you are getting a USB adapter for it. You go out and buy a USB A to B cable. If you don't have this magic cable, you go buy it.

      DB-9 and DB-25 are both serial, and you can buy adapters for them, but you can also buy cables.

      I'm sure that you will be able to get an adapter at some point, as well.
      --
      All right, I'm done.

      --
      That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
  19. quick question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is 76 bit the shortest it could be?

  20. Man after Man by SWestrup · · Score: 2, Informative

    I have both "After Man" and "Man after Man" by Dougal Dixon. The first is, IMHO, a much better read than the second.

    My main problem with the second is that it assumes that man will have a brief fling with genetic engineering, creating a few new subspecies, and then die out due to genetic flaws. After that, other than a bit of 'Animal Husbandry' by one subspecies on another, no directed evolution takes place. Frankly, I found this so unlikely a scenario that I was completely unable to suspend belief and enjoy the book for the speculation that it was.

    The First book was MUCH better. It simply assumes that man wipes himself out by some (unspecified) means, as well as taking every endagered species with him. The book then tries to imagine how evolution might fill all of the resultant vacant ecological niches. Many of the animals are interesting and even when implausible, are fascinating to wonder about.

  21. I can flip bits in 3 characters! by teamhasnoi · · Score: 4, Funny
    0=1

    I am a COMPUTER GOD!

  22. Firewire would be nice... by evilviper · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Firewire would be nice if more devices supported it. Unfortunately, Firewire is looking like SCSI, and USB is looking like IDE/ATA.

    Sure, no one who knows what they are talking about would argue that USB is better, but they will say that USB comes with more computers, and is cheaper for device manufacturers because of it's compatibility modes. eg. You won't see a firewire mouse with a $1 tranciever that allows it to plug right into PS/2--or a Firewire to Parallel & Serial adapter.

    I really think Firewire missed the boat on making it easy and cheap for device manufactuers to add Firewire support to their devices... USB obviously didn't.

    Firewire's main advantage is it's speed (which still doesn't come close to Ethernet--which further narrows Firewire's market) over USB, but I suspect, if they don't do a better job enticing device makers, Firewire could just as well disappear in favor of USB everywhere.

    --
    Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    1. Re:Firewire would be nice... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, most newer video devices have FireWire support. I agree that the storage side has been pretty weak: decent offerings, but not anything magical enough to sway users away from IDE. I do have both a FireWire webcam and camcorder (Canon ZR25) and FireWire has been an absolute godsend....great throughput, great support on both my Mac and PC (Win2k). I think FireWire is actually growing in acceptance, just not on the storage side of things..

    2. Re:Firewire would be nice... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Huh? Firewire's /slowest/ speed is the same speed as fast ethernet, which is what you should expect on most machines. True, firewire 800 isn't faster than Gb ethernet, but then 1394b calls for speeds up to 3200 Mbps.

      Is there faster ethernet available that I've not heard about?

    3. Re:Firewire would be nice... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      10 Gbps ethernet is in the pipe, and it will probably be here long before you ever see a 3200 Mbps firewire controller...

    4. Re:Firewire would be nice... by Guy+Harris · · Score: 3, Interesting
      Is there faster ethernet available that I've not heard about?

      Well, there's 10 gigabit Ethernet, and Intel are now sampling a card that supports it.

    5. Re:Firewire would be nice... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No desktop computer can handle interrupts fast enough for 10Gb ethernet anyway, so it's all moot.

    6. Re:Firewire would be nice... by tbmaddux · · Score: 5, Informative
      You won't see a firewire mouse...
      Well, good! What mouse needs to transmit data on the order of gigabits per second (IEEE 1394b specs with speeds of 0.8, 1.6, 3.2 Gbps which BTW also refutes your claim that its speed doesn't come close to Ethernet)?

      Apple has it right. Use USB for low-power low-bandwidth serial devices like mice, most printers and scanners, and heck even Zip drives, and use FireWire for the high-bandwidth peripherals. The connectors are small enough that our laptops can handle multiples of each. So bring 'em all!

      FYI, an old but still accurate response to the announcement of USB 2.0 from David Every.

      --
      Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?
    7. Re:Firewire would be nice... by MacGoldstein · · Score: 1

      Its sooo much slower than ethernet, even now by a factor of four. When you network with PC friends, no one else has gigabit, the mac pro-sumer models are the only ones with that, so the only platform where even the old firewire was slower was the pro mac models.

      Apple has a beta version of firewire over IP now, and i used it for a direct uplink to my quake server at the last lan party, and while pings weren't always 4 times smaller than the PC's, they were consistently lower.

      While that may be a while away since cables cost so much, there are still devices that desperately need firewire. The iPod is a great example of what an MP3 player should be. I see those great archos players, and realized I could never get all my mp3's on them in a rush due to the 1.1 USB in most of them. Firewire's transmission speed for that is amazing, and it charges the device off of the computers port simultatneously.

      And for digital video, of course, there IS no other option

    8. Re:Firewire would be nice... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That's what the ethernet card is for.

    9. Re:Firewire would be nice... by Qrlx · · Score: 1

      You know what sucks about firewire?

      All the devices are powered. Then they try to power each other. Then shit blows up, in a cascading overload kind of way.

      This only happens when you chain like 20 drives together... The thingies you're hooking together on your FireWire chain need to be electrically (as in current-carring) isolated from each other.

      You wouldn't run a train with the locomotives spaced out between every fifth boxcar, would you? No, they all go at the front. Firewire needs to learn that lesson. ANd if they're all locomotives (which they are) they need to just pull their own weight and not try to push the one in front of them.

      Is there anyone out there who has chained together 20 firewire drives and NOT had their G4's firewire port blow up? If so I'd like to hear from them.

    10. Re:Firewire would be nice... by tmy47 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Hym... Did Intel get an Emmy for USB 2.0??
      Can you diasy chain 63 devices over USB 2.0??
      Can you shoot uncommpressed video over USB 2.0??

    11. Re:Firewire would be nice... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So what you're saying is that you'd like BOTH firewire AND usb ports?

      I think that I'm fine with /one/ kind of port. I thought that the 'u' stood for 'universal'--so why repeat history with accepting two competing standards?
      I don't want a parallel port, a serial port, a ps/2 port, a mouse port, etc..
      I don't want to have to choose between the peripheral I really want to buy and the peripheral that supports my type of port.
      I just want /one/ kind of port that (1) is fast, and (2) is powered (so that I don't have to accomodate devices on the power strip). So personally I like firewire.
      But after seeing what devices being sold on the market support (be it firewire, usb, serial, or what-have-youl, I got the impression that USB just won in the home market.

      On that note, does anyone know what kind of speed and features USB will gain in its next revision?

    12. Re:Firewire would be nice... by tbmaddux · · Score: 2
      So what you're saying is that you'd like BOTH firewire AND usb ports?
      Yes, because there's no reason for those low-power, low-bandwidth USB 1 devices to be on my FireWire chain, and the fact that they're on the USB 2 chain leads to problems (see the MacKiDo link I posted previously).

      You mentioned parallel, serial, ps/2, and mouse ports. I agree, fuck that. But there's plenty of room on the existing PowerBook G4s for multiple FireWire and USB ports.

      400 Mbps FireWire already carries better real-world bandwidth than USB 2, and unlike any version of USB it's also peer-to-peer, so your peripherals can communicate at high speeds without even going through the port on your PC. FireWire 2 is even better.

      --
      Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?
    13. Re:Firewire would be nice... by silas_moeckel · · Score: 1

      Actauly it dosent come close to ethernet that currently clocks in at 10 gbps. The BIG difference is that firewire is multi initiator like FC and to some extents good old SCSI meaning any 2 devices that feel like talking to each other can. USB forces the PC to be the only end point devices cant talk to devices. Now thats fine for a mouse or a keyboard. But get into HD's tape drives and camera's and it's a nice feature. In the long run this means devices can accept multiple PC's on the same bus all connecting to say a shared scanner, HD, RAID or tape drive without all the overhead of dealing with a network and servers. Now for the HD and RAID you need something like CXFS from SGI to make everybody play nice but clustered filesystems are becoming more and more avalible.

      Anybody remember if you can run IP over FireWire like you can under FC? Granted I would take GE over FC but it's a nice secondary network connection and something high speed. I wonder if they will ever make the Apple laptops able to share out there HD like the old Duo systems.

      --
      No sir I dont like it.
    14. Re:Firewire would be nice... by fermion · · Score: 1
      First, the reason the SCSI did not worked out for simple consumer things is that it was a little more expensive and was a little more difficult to use because of chaining. However once you understand the SCSI concept, connected new devices is trivial. Just look at the instructions for connecting a ZIP drive to a SCSI and parallel port. Single step with optional software in the former, command line hack with mandatory drivers in the latter.

      Second, Firewire has not missed the boat. The fact is that most products are going to run over USB because that is the appropriate speed. The devices that need firewire will have firewire. In the PC world, where you have a diahrea of legacy ports and late adoption of innovative technology(it took a long time for the PC to include USB ports, and even longer for software to fully support the ports), one does not expect Firewire, to coin a phrase, catch fire. However on devices that are designed to be simple and usable, the usb/firewire/ethernet comination makes a lot of sense.

      Third, Firewire's main advantage is only partially speed. The other advantages are that it is plug and play and can use a hub(the hub makes it simpler than SCSI). Until Ethernet becomes plug and play, Firewire still has the advantage.

      --
      "She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
    15. Re:Firewire would be nice... by SmittyTheBold · · Score: 2

      Anybody remember if you can run IP over FireWire like you can under FC?

      Unibrain offers a product to do just that. IIRC, it encapsulates IP through normal FireWire frames. I don't know if it encapsulates the ethernet layer too, but it may. They offer products for both Windows and Mac platforms.

      WinXP has some sort of IEEE 1394 networking built in, but I don't know if it's IP-based.

      I wonder if they will ever make the Apple laptops able to share out there HD like the old Duo systems.

      You're talking about FireWire Target Mode. Most Apple models with built-in FireWire support it, the only exceptions are a few first-gen units like the Blue-and-White G3s. You hold the 't' key as you start up a computer, and it operates as a FireWire hard disk until you power it off.

      --
      ± 29 dB
    16. Re:Firewire would be nice... by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 2

      10 Gbps ethernet v. FireWire. Hmm. And you're managing to get 10 Gbps out of your desktop by overclocking your PCI bus to 2.4 GHz? How's the liquid nitrogen bath working?

      Anyway, Apple release an IP over FireWire preview a little while back.

      And, yes, the laptops can be a FireWire device. I've used my PowerBook G3 from an iMac - it's a good bit faster than 100 base-T.

      --
      That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
    17. Re:Firewire would be nice... by evilviper · · Score: 2
      What mouse needs to transmit data on the order of gigabits per second (IEEE 1394b specs with speeds of 0.8, 1.6, 3.2 Gbps which BTW also refutes your claim that its speed doesn't come close to Ethernet)?

      I was using a mouse as an example... You could say the same for Printers, Scanners, Hard Drives, etc. USB has made it easy for device makers, Firewire has not.

      As for speed, ethernet is faster, even if not the $2 card in your desktop PC. I'd be willing to bet that ethernet is faster that FW even if you only compare performance verses the price. In addition, ethernet can support FAR more devices, goes over longer distance without amplification than FW can, and ethernet essentially go infinitely when it is repeated (eg. hubs, switches, and a few routers).

      And I could care less about what anyone thinks about USB2... My point wasn't that USB was better or worse than FW, just that USB has done a much better job of getting device manufactuers onboard.
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    18. Re:Firewire would be nice... by evilviper · · Score: 2

      Hym... Did I say USB 2.0 was technically better than Firewire?
      Can you read something without reading your own agenda into it?
      Do you see Firewire ports on printers, scanners, digital (still) cameras?

      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
    19. Re:Firewire would be nice... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sir, that article that you linked to is horseshit.

      It spends paragraphs upon paragraphs explaining how a MISCONFIGURATION will hurt performance. Yes, plugging a USB 2 device into a USB 1 hub will cause a bottleneck. DUH! Would you expect to get full speed out of a 100Mb ethernet card if you only had a 10Mb hub? Would you expect an ATA133 hard drive to communicate at full speed if it is plugged into an ATA66 controller?

      The article does quietly mention that Intel already thought of this, and SURPRISE! They have a perfectly good solution: use a USB2 hub! Then bandwidth is optimized, even when using USB1 devices. Seems like a perfectly good solution to me. The article also infers that Firewire has NOT fixed this lost-bandwidth problem when using devices with different transfer speeds: only that it's "not as serious" because you might only lose 7/8's of your performance!

      Another case of mac zealotry.

    20. Re:Firewire would be nice... by AJWM · · Score: 2

      You know what sucks about firewire?
      All the devices are powered.


      That turns out not to be the case.

      Look at the "mini" Firewire connector on digital camcorders (and some laptops). (On Sony products it'll be called "i.Link", their name for 1394). It only has 4 pins -- no power pins. The camera isn't going to try to power anything nor accept power from anything.

      Can't say as I've tried connecting 20 FW drives to a G4, but I have connected a whole mess of A/V gear, computers and drives together with Firewire with no problems.

      The 1394a spec calls for current limiting and protection diodes on all ports of a power-providing device (NB, not all self-powered devices necessarily provide power to the bus, eg the camcorders above), but the older 1394-1995 spec only called for a single diode for all ports (ie closer to the power supply). (That spec described different power limits.) Maybe your G4 (or the drives) ports weren't up to the 1394a spec.

      --
      -- Alastair
    21. Re:Firewire would be nice... by Qrlx · · Score: 2

      Oh, you know what, I think that's what I was very ineloquently getting at. The problem comes in when devices that are powered are pushing power to the non-powered ones. How does the power supply know if it needs to juice up it's neighbor?

      (note special geek spelling of its)

      My understanding (which clearly is limited) is that devices will send power to their neighbors when they are not supposed to. I would have to imagine the EE of so many different devices independently controlling their power requirements could make for an ugly circuit. One I would not want to have to solve on an exam.

      It's quite possible that the problem has been solved in the new spec you mentioned.

    22. Re:Firewire would be nice... by Lars+T. · · Score: 2

      FireWire target disk mode. Works on all current Macs (but XServe), desktop and notebook.

      --

      Lars T.

      To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck

    23. Re:Firewire would be nice... by AJWM · · Score: 2

      How does the power supply know if it needs to juice up it's neighbor?

      That information is supposed to be reported by each device in a Self-ID packet it sends out when attached to the bus (or when there's a bus reset). That packet includes info about whether it's a source or sink of power and approximately (ie within what category) how much.

      (Note there's a wide range of allowable voltage on the power lines: 8v to 33v (the older spec went up to 40v))

      --
      -- Alastair
    24. Re:Firewire would be nice... by silas_moeckel · · Score: 1

      Well looks like Apple did do a great job they included the one feature I loved about my old school duo when back in the day it could boot any mac hardware with a SCSI port that was a great tech tool. And it seems a few places are running IP over firewire.

      --
      No sir I dont like it.
    25. Re:Firewire would be nice... by rgigger · · Score: 1

      Last time I was in ultimate electronics checking out the new big screen HDTVs I noticed many of them were "firewire ready". When I asked the salesman what on earth this was for he said that eventually all communication with the TV (audio/vidio input/output) would be done over firewire.

      Does anyone know anything about this? At least I think it refutes fairly well this guys assertion that no one is going to adopt it. If it is becoming a standard on even TVs I hardly think it's going away.

    26. Re:Firewire would be nice... by Alsee · · Score: 2

      What mouse needs to transmit data on the order of gigabits per second

      Well maybe some of us mouse faster than you do! :D

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
    27. Re:Firewire would be nice... by evilviper · · Score: 2
      At least I think it refutes fairly well this guys assertion that no one is going to adopt it. If it is becoming a standard on even TVs I hardly think it's going away.

      Compared to Firewire, MiniDiscs are EVERYWHERE... Would you call MD a success? Would you be happy to see Firewire remain less popular than MiniDiscs?

      Firewire is running in circles... They're doing nothing to get device manufacturers to add firewire support, and are loosing popularity to USB. If someone in the Firewire camp doesn't do something, Firewire will be as popular as Beta VCRs, and SACDs.
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  23. Re: Computers use binary, remember? by RodgerDodger · · Score: 5, Funny

    It is an order of magnitude. Observe:

    New Speed = Old Speed x 10

    If you think a doubling of speed isn't impressive, then you've been jaded too long.

    --
    "Software is too expensive to build cheaply"
  24. Too bad it requires googleflops. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Seriously, rsa-2048 is like giving a million monkeys a million type writers, its not going to work.

    Encryption is powerful for a reason, people DON'T want their files being crax0red. rc5-72 projects gonna take 3000 YEARS to crack.

    The "standard", 128-bit is 2^64 times stronger than 64 bit. it is FUTILE to even TRY and crack it. Once somethings encrypted with it, the ONLY way to crack it is to comprimise the key.

    RSA-2048 on the other hand, requires factorisation of huge numbers that are not computable with todays computers, unless you have a couple of trillion orders of magnatude of the current age of the universe to spare.

    IT'S Microsoft's box, It's what THEY are in control with, IT'S THEIR Black box! Microsoft Isnt gonna let any old idiot write crap for its machine, If you wanna put linux on a console, get a Playstation 2 and the OFFICAL KIT!

    1. Re:Too bad it requires googleflops. by ChaosDiscord · · Score: 5, Insightful
      IT'S Microsoft's box, It's what THEY are in control with, IT'S THEIR Black box!

      If it's their box, what exactly did I pay $200 for? The nifty packing material?

    2. Re:Too bad it requires googleflops. by leuk_he · · Score: 2

      the devil is in the details:
      128-bit is 2^64 times stronger than 64 bit.

      No, it is 2^8 times harder to crack (For private/public key) . Check your theory. still it is highly unlikely to be found this way.

    3. Re:Too bad it requires googleflops. by Emexies · · Score: 1

      Well, suppose they actually did manage to compromise the key. Say, having an inside contact on teh XBox project development team.

      Wouldn't this code cracking business be quite a nice disguise for releasing the actual key they've gotten their hands on? After a couple of months running this project, some machine suposedly manages to find the key, but in actuality they've just released the key that they had all along.

    4. Re:Too bad it requires googleflops. by Alsee · · Score: 2

      If it's their box, what exactly did I pay $200 for? The nifty packing material?

      No, check your licence agreement. That belongs to Microsoft too.

      -

      --
      - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  25. OS/2 by Teckla · · Score: 1

    $/=\4;map{?OS/2?|$f&&$f++==2?$c-=2+vec($_,0,32)/4: ++$c||s/../\0\0/s;print}"

    While examining this nugget of Perl wizardy, I suddenly have the urge to install OS/2!

    COINCIDENCE?

    -Teckla

    1. Re:OS/2 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I actually have OS/2 Warp 3.0 somewhere around here in its original box. Heck I ran it for several years, like maybe 1994-1996. It was always cool to have DOS version 20.0 :-) Actually all the GNU tools have been ported to OS/2 for a really long time. They had X-Window system for it years and years ago, in case you didn't like Presentation Manager.

      Yep, I loved OS/2, hate Windows, and run Linux.

  26. flip in one bit! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Just pipe your data through a NOT gate, it really is that simple.

  27. "man after man" by Hubert_Shrump · · Score: 3, Informative

    He did finish it.

    My copy says (C) 1990

    It's not just creepy anymore.

    --
    Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
  28. Re:Firewire would be nice...Video editing. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Firewire's main advantage is it's speed (which still doesn't come close to Ethernet--which further narrows Firewire's market) over USB, but I suspect, if they don't do a better job enticing device makers, Firewire could just as well disappear in favor of USB everywhere."

    Spoken like a man that's never done video editing. And no USB 2.0 doesn't cut it. Go look at some of the pro-consumer video gear out there.

  29. Anyone thought of this when trying to crack.. by happyhippy · · Score: 2
    prime multiples: Calc and store every prime number and then in turn divide them into the key to see which ones crack it.

    I realise that the overhead is mainly in calculating the primes but you would only need to do that once. And the savings would be in the more times you use it to crack keys. How many primes are there that can produce a 2048 bit kit after all?

    Oh yeah, Im no mathematician.

    1. Re:Anyone thought of this when trying to crack.. by happyhippy · · Score: 2
      Forgot to add after 'How many primes are there that can produce a 2048 bit key after all':

      Surely it must be on the scale of billions time less then other methods like brute force.

    2. Re:Anyone thought of this when trying to crack.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That seems about the equivalent of saying,

      "Given this perpetual motion engine, look how much gas we would save!!!"

    3. Re:Anyone thought of this when trying to crack.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, 2^2048 = 3.23170060713110073007148766867 followed by around 587 zeroes.

      Also realize that if the answer was that simple, this kind of encryption technology would be about as useful as ROT13.

    4. Re:Anyone thought of this when trying to crack.. by burris · · Score: 4, Informative
      Uh yeah, that was thought of a few thousand years ago. Known as "Direct Search Factorization" it is basically brute force and the slowest algorithm. There are much faster algorithms available and they have been used on the RSA factoring challenges.


      A page on factoring algorithms


      burris

    5. Re:Anyone thought of this when trying to crack.. by Nynaeve · · Score: 1

      Think about the space required to store that many primes...your method of "trial division" is also known as "brute force".
      Here is a very fast program that generates primes using the concept of Wheel factorization
      Wheel factorization sounds like a neat way to factor composites, but I tried it and it cannot compare to the quadratic sieve or the number field sieve

  30. Ironic by mikeage · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    The ad I got on this page was from Intel... talking about how if your code is efficient (i.e., an example with a loop), you want an efficient processor. Interestingly, their example showed an unrolled loop as inefficient... on the keyboard, perhaps, but this is an old trick to optimize compilation.

    --
    -- Is "Sig" copyrighted by www.sig.com?
    1. Re:Ironic by jbischof · · Score: 1
      If your looking to optimize every last processor cycle, sure its faster.

      However if you want cleaner, more compact, and easier to alter code the loop would be better. Sure you add some branching and calculating, but the branch prediction should handle the loop near perfectly and simple arithmatic instructions are nothing, the limiting factor is memory access.

    2. Re:Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      It totally depends on the processor and the code in question. Blindly unrolling loops can kill performance if you put too much pressure on the I cache.

    3. Re:Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "unrolled loop "
      Please Explain?

    4. Re:Ironic by jbischof · · Score: 1
      I would guess that the Icache should be able to keep up with non-branching code as fast as the processor can execute it. If there are no branches then the Icache will benefit from locality of reference and always fetch the next few instructions with the current one.

      Maybe the I-cache will get overwhelmed, but I don't see how this would make it slower than looping code.

  31. Is that some kind of limerick? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I never understand geek jokes.

  32. Impossible to obfuscate C? Surely you jest... by douglips · · Score: 5, Informative
    Never heard of the the The International Obfuscated C Code Contest, I supposed.

    Here's an example (natori), from the Year 2000 winners:
    #include <stdio.h>
    #include <math.h>
    double l;main(_,o,O){return putchar((_--+22&&_+44&&main(_,-43,_),_&&o)?(main(- 43,++o,O),((l=(o+21)/sqrt(3-O*22-O*O),l*l<4&&(fabs (((time(0)-607728)%2551443)/405859.-4.7+acos(l/2)) <1.57))[" #"])):10);}

    It supposedly generates a picture of the moon in it's current phase.

    Impossible? feh.
  33. WiebeTech has 1394b too by MichaelCrawford · · Score: 5, Informative
    Here are articles about WiebeTech's announcement of 1394b support:

    WiebeTech also now supports ATA-6 (large IDE drives) in its FireWire bridge product line.

    (WiebeTech is my consulting client. I did the firmware and user interface for FireWire Encrypt).

    --
    Request your free CD of my piano music.
    1. Re:WiebeTech has 1394b too by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Then what about fixing the weakness noted in MacObserver's article ? You may want to some add public key encryption to pass back the key to the harddrive.

  34. 76 characters? Hah! by Chymaera · · Score: 4, Funny

    Tom7's haiku still takes the cake with regards to brevity:

    The OS/2 chunk
    has a bit for embedding.
    Set it to zero.

    52, by my count, counting spaces--beat that!

    1. Re:76 characters? Hah! by yerricde · · Score: 1

      The OS/2 chunk / has a bit for embedding. / Set it to zero.

      But which bit in the OS/2 chunk is the "bit for embedding" and should be set to 0?

      --
      Will I retire or break 10K?
  35. One more application... by unicorn · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I was in Best Buy, or The Good Guys the other day, and happened to see a display of stereo equipment. The manufacturer was pitching the product line as using Firewire to interconnect all the devices. Personally I think this is a great design. Suddenly each device has a power cord, and a single data cable. And then the reciever has a "hub" built in. FAR less spaghetti behind the system, FAR less opportunities for noise to leak into the wiring, etc.

    --
    "Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
    1. Re:One more application... by nedron · · Score: 2

      The other cool part of A/V connection using Firewire is when they add HAVi on top of it. This basiaclly allows units to identify each other over the FW connection. Then, a HAVi enabled TV can actually control a HAVi enabled device (receiver, Digital VHS deck, etc.)

      --


      * As is generally the case, my opinions do not reflect those of my employer.
    2. Re:One more application... by ruiner13 · · Score: 3, Informative
      I was in Best Buy, or The Good Guys the other day, and happened to see a display of stereo equipment. The manufacturer was pitching the product line as using Firewire to interconnect all the devices. Personally I think this is a great design. Suddenly each device has a power cord, and a single data cable. And then the reciever has a "hub" built in. FAR less spaghetti behind the system, FAR less opportunities for noise to leak into the wiring, etc.

      The manufacturer is mitsubishi, they call it Net Command and they have all their pro. equipment firewire enabled. When you connect any device, it appears in a device manager-like screen where you can choose to send video and/or sound to any connected device that can output video and/or sound. Very cool, and WAAAAY better than RCA, coax, S-Video, or Component.

      --

      today is spelling optional day.

    3. Re:One more application... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And also far less opportunity to actually do something interesting with the cables, such as splitting them, or creating feedback loops, of course. (still its nice)

  36. my take on the Perl bit flipper by Dr.+Awktagon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    His one-liner doesn't seem to update the checksum? There is a checksum someplace in there.

    How do I know this interesting fact? Because last year I tried writing my own one-liner, but couldn't squeeze it down to one line because of the checksum.

    Here's what I came up with at the time, which according to diff produces identical output to the C code:

    $/=$_;s''$_=<>;?OS/2?g;$n=pos>>2;$f=-n+1,32);-f/2+ 4,16)=0;(-n
    ,32))=unpack"x$f%32C".-n+2,32),$_;pri nt';s'-'vec($_,$'g;eval

    121 bytes if you take out the newlines. And any slashdot-inserted spaces.

    No, I have no idea how it works any more. The code is placed in $_, the '-' is not as it seems, eval() runs the code in $_, and that's all I can tell you. Welcome to Perl!

    1. Re:my take on the Perl bit flipper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There are actually two checksums that need to be updated. One on the OS/2 table and a file
      checksum in the head table. Yes, the program does not bother to correct these two checksums. If
      you examine Tom Murphy's program, you'll see that he neglects to update the file checksum and
      actually miscalculates the OS/2 table checksum. When I asked him how it was that his program
      still worked, he indicated that most applications seem to simply ignore the checksum values. --ljb

    2. Re:my take on the Perl bit flipper by Dr.+Awktagon · · Score: 2

      If you examine Tom Murphy's program, you'll see that he neglects to update the file checksum and actually miscalculates the OS/2 table checksum. When I asked him how it was that his program still worked, he indicated that most applications seem to simply ignore the checksum values.

      Well, heck, I was looking at it and if I take out the checksum that makes it a scant 64 bytes:

      $/=$_;$_=<>;?OS/2?g;(vec$_,(vec$_,(pos>>2)+1,32)/2 +4,16)=0;print

      And since the eval trick is gone, it's a little less obfuscated. I'm sure a bona-fide perl guru could shrink it by a few more bytes.

      I know nothing about TrueType so who knows if that always works.

    3. Re:my take on the Perl bit flipper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Congrats, you've definitely out-coded my version . By the way, you can find docs on the Truetype
      format at www.microsoft.com/typography/otspec/otff.htm

      It's kind of ironic that a simple checksum verification would yield these program's useless.
      Of course, the DMCA probably doesn't care about that. Also, I noticed there's a digital signature
      option (DSIG) available in the Truetype spec.
      Combinining the embed bits with a digitial signature on the file would yield a stronger
      verfication checking capability.

    4. Re:my take on the Perl bit flipper by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here's a slight improvement -- /=$_;$_=;?OS/2?g;(vec$_,(vec$_,4+pos>>2,32)/2+4,16 )=0;print

    5. Re:my take on the Perl bit flipper by Tom7 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I've been told that the checksum isn't actually checked by windows -- apparently, my program updates it incorrectly (using an 8-bit sum instead of a 32-bit one) and doesn't update some other global header checksum. I haven't fixed the program in case I ever end up going to court over it (where it might matter that I haven't touched the page in 6 years), and because it works anyway...

  37. IEEE1394 isn't going away. by dmaxwell · · Score: 5, Informative

    Firewire has one other point in it's favor aside from speed. USB requires a PC to arbitrate the bus while Firewire does not. It is possible to transfer video from DV camera to DV camera with a Firewire cable for instance. If the camera in question understands the partition and filesystem formats, it can even be downloaded directly onto a Firewire hard drive. I also remember reading somewhere that USB is bursty compared to Firewire. That is, properly designed Firewire devices have higher sustained data rates than any form of USB. This is more shades of IDE vs. SCSI I suppose.

    Basically, USB is intended to interface devices to PCs. Intel likes it that way. Firewire is meant to interconnect devices to each other as well as PCs.

    1. Re:IEEE1394 isn't going away. by ruiner13 · · Score: 2
      It is possible to transfer video from DV camera to DV camera with a Firewire cable for instance.

      It can also be used to connect up to 6 PlayStation 2's together, as that is what they used for "link" play before the recent release of the ethernet card for it. The port is on the front right next to the USB ports.

      --

      today is spelling optional day.

    2. Re:IEEE1394 isn't going away. by sleadlay · · Score: 1
      For these reasons, IEEE1394b has also been selected as the interconnect system for automotive (telematics) components, under the name 'IDB-1394':

      Commverge Article: 'Bluetooth and 1394 get behind the wheel'

      From the article: Compared to proprietary technologies such as MOST (media oriented system transport), IDB-1394 provides a standardized approach to in-vehicle networking and also offers the bandwidth required to support multiple multimedia streams, according to proponents. Moreover, existing 1394 portable devices can be plugged directly into the automotive multimedia bus through the use of an IDB-1394 defined "customer convenience" port.

      Nice. :)

  38. Explanation of OS/2 by yerricde · · Score: 1

    I suddenly have the urge to install OS/2! COINCIDENCE?

    I think not. To me, it looks like every TrueType font contains a block of information designed for use by IBM's OS/2 Warp operating system, and the broadc^H^H^H^H^H^H embedding flag lies at a fixed offset from the OS/2 tag.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  39. Re:Here is a copy of the article in case it gets / by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    this is funny, don't you think? think about it .. if slashdot got slashdotted, then you wouldn't be able to read his copy! irony! funny! okay maybe it's not so funny. but I laughed when I read it. I also laugh when Mr. Birdy comes out of the cuckoo clock, but that doesn't mean I'm stupid.

  40. OSS can encrypt too by DrSkwid · · Score: 2

    but it would be a pretty good set of tools to avoid a man in the middle attack sooner or later

    the CPU & net latency have too much of an impact currently

    I'm sure it won't be long though

    --
    There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
    1. Re:OSS can encrypt too by timeOday · · Score: 2
      There's no point in encrypting the data from an oss game - it's easier just to change the code.

      As for man in the middle, that's easy - all the boxes are made by the same party, so just put a key in there during manufacture. Then there's no need to exchange keys subsequently.

      You do have a point about CPU usage, except that Internet games have to work with so little bandwidth anyways. And an extra couple milliseconds latency (en/decrypting time) is pretty meaningless on the Internet.

      Again, I'm not in favor of closed systems, but there might be a silver lining.

  41. You just need one of those new SGI macines. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    With a couple hundred Itaniums running SGI/Linux, they could probably crack it in no time. And just pocket the prize money to help pay for the SGi box. What a no-brainer.

  42. Parallel Firewire by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If they could only figure out a way to put 8 Firewires in parallel, then you'd really see blazing speed. Imagine how fast you could send characters to, let's say, a printer or a floppy drive.

  43. Re:Impossible to obfuscate C? Surely you jest... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I get these errors with g++:

    phase.c:3: `_' was not declared in this scope
    phase.c:3: `o' was not declared in this scope
    phase.c:3: `O' was not declared in this scope
    phase.c:3: ISO C++ forbids declaration of `main' with no type
    phase.c:3: initializer list being treated as compound expression
    phase.c:3: syntax error before `{'

    and these with gcc: /usr/tmp/ccljN8yA.o: In function `main': /usr/tmp/ccljN8yA.o(.text+0xd2): undefined reference to `sqrt' /usr/tmp/ccljN8yA.o(.text+0x136): undefined reference to `acos'
    collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

    $ gcc -v
    Reading specs from /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-redhat-linux/2.96/specs
    gcc version 2.96 20000731 (Red Hat Linux 7.1 2.96-98)

    oh well...

  44. You have other tools apart from a hammer by hayden · · Score: 2
    USB was designed to reduce cable clutter for the myriad of low speed devices that live near a computer. In this role one of the main concerns was reducing the cost of the peripherals. Firewire was never designed to fill this niche and isn't particularily good at it. Theres no real need to connect your mouse to your keyboard and have them talk to each other independant of a host but a firewire implementation must be able to do this (I believe). USB is much better for cheap and low speed than firewire will ever be.

    But USB isn't good at high end. USB 2 has a higher theoretical bandwidth than firewire 400 but currently no host controller has gotten close to the theory. USB device can't talk to each other without a host controller. USB cable lengths are really short when compared with firewire. USB can't supply as much power to devices as firewire.

    There's no reason why firewire and USB can't coexist and there are enough people interested in each standard to see them survive. Firewire while more expensive is not so expensive (for relatively little gain, like SCSI) as to be for people who are spending other peoples money. And firewire is starting to come as standard on higher end motherboards and multimedia cards (as well as standard on Macs) so it's getting better market penetration now.

    And remember, Intel invented USB but it was headed for the dust bin of history until Apple adopted it.

    --
    Nerd: Derogatory term typically directed at anybody with a lower Slashdot ID than you.
    1. Re:You have other tools apart from a hammer by evilviper · · Score: 2
      I'll ignore all the rest of your off-topic post, but this:

      There's no reason why firewire and USB can't coexist and there are enough people interested in each standard to see them survive.

      There's no reason why SCSI and IDE and there are enough people interested in each standard to see them survive.

      That said, try taking your SCSI CD-burner and plugging it into someone else's computer. This is MUCH MORE of a problem when dealing with USB/Firewire as they are external devices, and designed to be taken everywhere.

      Firewire has it's niche where it will likely be for a few years no matter what happens, but if it doesn't expand it's market, it could very well be killed off, or pushed into an even smaller niche as USB takes over.
      --
      Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
  45. What I hate about firewire video by t0qer · · Score: 3, Informative

    This is a windows only issue, but why is it that the DV manufacturers decided in their infinite wisdom to make it so you could only capture in one format (DV)?

    I used to love using my analog BT878 card to do software mpeg compression while I captured. It saved me a ton of disk space and let me capture many different things.

    The recomended disk space for 2 hours of DV is 30 gigs. Since I had no other option I just went out and bought an 80 gig drive.

    So I guess my question to the 1394b creators is, will I be able to software compress a DV stream as I capture it? Or will I have to use oodles of disk space like I do now.

    1. Re:What I hate about firewire video by Jeffrey+Baker · · Score: 3, Informative

      DV is already compressed. Each frame is compressed individually for a constant data rate of 25 megabits per seconds.

      Some video editing programs (like Final Cut) allow you to edit the video while it is still on the DV tape, then render it to a Quicktime movie directly. You do not need an intermediate copy on the hard disk.

    2. Re:What I hate about firewire video by Animats · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The general idea is that you only use lossy interframe compression once, when you're all done editing and are producing final output. Otherwise, you get artifacts from multiple compression/decompression passes.

    3. Re:What I hate about firewire video by AJWM · · Score: 3, Interesting

      DV manufacturers decided in their infinite wisdom to make it so you could only capture in one format (DV)?

      Um, what would you expect a DV manufacturer to make?

      will I be able to software compress a DV stream as I capture it?

      A DV stream is already digital, you don't need to "capture" it. And it's already compressed (it's similar to MJPEG). And there are actually two DV formats (well, more than that if you count NTSC vs PAL), 25 Mb/sec (the usual) and higher quality 50 Mb/sec used in high end professional gear.

      Oh, and not all Firewire video is DV. There are some applications (notably machine vision) where you don't want any compression artifacts, so you run an uncompressed data stream over the wire. Requires specialized gear.

      my question to the 1394b creators

      All of which has nothing to do with 1394b. DV over 1394a only uses 100 Mb/sec of bandwidth, and a lot of that is empty packets (the main constraint is the timing, if you're sending real-time video you use an isochronous channel on the firewire). 1394b probably (I haven't looked at that part of the spec) means you can run more isochronous channels at the same time, for simultaneous real-time video streams, but I don't know for sure. Either way the DV format doesn't change.

      --
      -- Alastair
    4. Re:What I hate about firewire video by Steve+Cowan · · Score: 2

      Are you trying to suggest that you can't do an analog capture of DV? If you really want that kind of degradation, there's nothing stopping you from plugging the analog output of a DV VCR or camcorder right into that stinky old analog capture card. Is the mere presence of FireWire somehow preventing you from doing that?

  46. Re:unrolled loop by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Zen of Assembly (or something like that)
    Michael Abrash

    don't know the ISBN

  47. Well... by autopr0n · · Score: 2

    Have fun walking around after your car falls apart, I guess.

    --
    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
    1. Re:Well... by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 2

      Did anyone ever hear the one about the guy with the JATO?

      --
      That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
    2. Re:Well... by Feyr · · Score: 0

      except that it didnt actually happen... the guy that did it has an explanation floating around the net somewhere (it was 20 or so pages).

      no one got killed, and the car crashed into a mine off from a railroad

    3. Re:Well... by Oculus+Habent · · Score: 2

      If you follow the link you will notice at the top of the page, "Confirmed Bogus by Darwin".

      --
      That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
  48. Oh yeah? by Anonymous+DWord · · Score: 5, Funny

    !1

    --
    "If he thinks he can hide and run from the United States and our allies, he's sorely mistaken." Bush on bin Laden
    1. Re:Oh yeah? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      this is a value, the perl script is a function.

      this would be best :

      !

    2. Re:Oh yeah? by ICA · · Score: 1

      Do I hear 1? Okay...flip that digit!

  49. That *is* funny... by tmasssey · · Score: 0, Redundant

    I agree. That is hilarious, not redundant. Though, the !1 is even better... If I had mod points, I'd give you both one.

  50. Note for moderators - redundancy trap on ./ by djupedal · · Score: 2

    When I came in, there were no messages showing (below my view level?)....don't ask why, as the first one about this was 20 minutes ahead of mine.

    I would not have wasted my time if I'd known that others had posted the same thing earlier. Oh well...luck of the draw I guess ...be a bit more reasonable next time, thanks :)

  51. Dougal Dixon on Amazon by Vagary · · Score: 2

    Rather than going to his dinosaur-centric homepage, you're much better off learning about Dougal Dixon's works on Amazon. This reveals a book called The Future is Wild which uses computer graphics in a project much like After Man (and note that the co-author's last name is "Adams", perhaps fueling the original mistake). As well, we find that Man After Man was not only completed in 1990, it is now out-of-print. Plus you can pick up the companion book to the show The Wild World of the Future. And if you dig deep enough (hit #43), The New Dinosaurs: An Alternative Evolution. Amazing this Internet thing, isn't it?

    Anyway, now that I'm done karma-whoring, allow me to discuss After Man:

    I first discovered this book at my local library as a child, and it has since been taken out multiple times by each of my younger siblings. This is perhaps one of the great coffee-table books ever: even a single page is interesting, it is captivating no matter what your age or gender, and it's even educational! I can't think of a better textbook for introducing evolution to younger children. And it's even drawn and annotated in the style of Victorian zoologists. Perhaps my only complaint is all the boring birds: IIRC, only one of the flighted birds is physically unusual (it has feathers that extend its beak profile for catching insects).

  52. BusinessWeek article is old by tejarz · · Score: 1

    that businessweek article is a reprint of a cnet article published a few days ago. neo is done with the xbox now, i think

    1. Re:BusinessWeek article is old by tejarz · · Score: 1

      dammit, one minute after posting that, i look at www.xboxhacker.net and see that neo may be doin a new client. i would check the neo site out, but unfortunately, the site will not load for me, again

  53. Re:Impossible to obfuscate C? Surely you jest... by cide1 · · Score: 1

    I get the same errors in visual c.

    --
    -- the computer doesn't want any beer, no matter how much you think it does. NEVER, EVER feed your computer beer.
  54. add -lm by autopr0n · · Score: 2

    Or so says my C++ guru friend. And so says I, since I tried it and it worked.

    I'd post the output, but I'm sure the lameness filter would bitch

    The command I used was: gcc oo.c -lm

    --
    autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
  55. Worked with Cygwin and gcc by arcadum · · Score: 2, Informative

    I typed
    mvg@GEB ~
    $ gcc moon_phase.c -o moon_phase

    mvg@GEB ~
    $ ls
    identd.c moon_phase.c moon_phase.exe quotes
    temp test.c test.exe

    mvg@GEB ~
    $ ./moon_phase.exe

    LAM
    _ENE SFIL
    ++TERAVO DEDLA
    ___EMNE SFILTERA
    ____AVOIDEDLAME ESS
    ____FILTERI ABASTARD
    _____SONOFAN VILPLANF
    ____ORSOMET INGORNOTH
    _____INGLAMEN SSFILTER
    ------ISANOY NGBUTIWILL
    -------MAKEDOWITHW ATIHA
    ------BLAHBLAH LAHBLA HH
    BLAHBLAH LAHBLAHHH
    bLAHB AHBLAHBL HHH
    BLA BLAHBL HBLA HH
    YOUGETTHEIDEABLAH
    BL HBLAHBLA BLAHH
    bLAHB AHBLAHBLAH
    BLAHBLAHBL HBLA
    BLAH LAHB AHB
    LAM NESS ILT
    ERIS AMEE
    YES

    mvg@GEB ~
    $

  56. I think you've got it wrong by 2nd+Post! · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Misunderstanding on your part when you use the word 'capture'.

    "This is a windows only issues, but why is it that the DV manufacturers decided in their infinite wisdom to make it so you could only record in one format (DV)?"

    DV is the format the recording is stored on the tape. There *is* no 'capture' method when you transfer to the PC. Now, what you want is a program that converts from the DV stream into your codec of choice *before* it is stored onto the drive.

  57. Re:Impossible to obfuscate C? Surely you jest... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It compiles. It runs. The output wasn't quite right, but close enough that I feel nitpicky pointing it out.

    PS. Its a C program, not C++. Use gcc, not g++. Twit.

  58. of course it is - did you see the new port? by djupedal · · Score: 2

    usb to usb is one thing...fw400 to fw800 is another. Please remake your point.

  59. New FireWire: DANG. by SmittyTheBold · · Score: 2

    What new features are there that really make me go "wow!"

    1) Promised speed. The current 800 isn't so great a leap, but the specs to 3200 are, shall we say, DAMN FAST.

    2) Link length. 100 m? That's more than anyone needs for, well, anything. Still, the old limits were a bit small for some things, like my old workplace's FireWire network for swapping big A/V projects. We needed two or three repeaters for one run, and that was rather annoying.

    3) Loops are now allowed. Before, a logical loop was a bog no-no. Now, Apple says you can have redundant connections for added reliability. COOL, I say. It's a rather unique topology, and these are all features USB can't come close to.

    --
    ± 29 dB
  60. Firewire is to USB as SCSI is to IDE by pr0ntab · · Score: 1

    There is a reason for this distinction, by the way.

    Firewire (IEEE1394) is SCSI (scroll to the bottom).

    --
    Fuck Beta. Fuck Dice
  61. Perl: Programming Language? Not! by g_bit · · Score: 1, Redundant
    $/=\4;map{?OS/2?|$f&&$f++==2?$c-=2+vec($_,0,32)/4: ++$c||s/../\0\0/s;print}

    Dude, whoe the hell wants to look at that shit? You might as well just program in assembly.

  62. Re:New FireWire: DANG. by AnamanFan · · Score: 2

    "2) Link length. 100 m? That's more than anyone needs for, well, anything."

    My bet is that FW2 has great benifits with Firewire over IP. Yes, there are really nifty benifits with hardware connections such as hard drives and such, but with 800 speeds that reach 100m can make your LAN really smoke!

    --
    AnamanFan - Trying to find the Truth, one post at a time.
  63. Re:Impossible to obfuscate C? Surely you jest... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Run it with "gcc -o moon moon.c -lm". The "sqrt" errors are because you forgot to link in the maths library.

  64. Re:One more application..Got Moxie? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Combine all that with this, and WATCH OUT!.

  65. Thought of that, but didn't have time to do it by MichaelCrawford · · Score: 2
    I had considered the problem before the show, but I didn't have time to address it.

    FireWire Encrypt was a suprisingly difficult product to implement, and I was working on the show demo right up until the morning that James Wiebe had to catch a plane to go to San Fransisco.

    A number of concerns have been raised about various aspects of the products, but I guess one good thing about showing a demo instead of selling finished product at the booth is that we now have the opportunity to address them before we ship.

    So my plan is to use diffie-hellman key exchange to send the key to the FireWire Encrypt.

    --
    Request your free CD of my piano music.
  66. Re:Perl: Programming Language? Not! by lux55 · · Score: 1

    Maybe those of us who are interested in unusual programming solutions and trying to take our skills to the limit in order to improve.

    You could say he might as well program in befunge too. I'm inclined to agree. But love it or hate it, those Perl hackers "do it like nobody does", and that deserves props. :)

  67. Count again 53!!! by namhash · · Score: 1

    Ran a counter over the text and it came back with 53 characters. (Periods and spaces) Not that it really matters or anything.

  68. y you're right about the oss by DrSkwid · · Score: 2

    dont know what I was thinking, too tired I hope!

    Maybe milliseconds of latency is an issue for twitch games like Quake and it would be variable too. People already do tricks with changing the packet rate higher during encounters to destabalise the opposition.

    It will be interesting to know how the worls of MMORPGs will up the ante in the next generation. I imagine that there are people feverishly working away at cracking the project entropia net code. Project Entropia is an MMOPRG where the in-game money is exchanged for hard real world currency so the potential for fraud has moved from 'look at my l33t armor f4gg07' to 'look at my l33t b4nk balanc3'

    --
    There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
  69. "speed, speed and more speed" = 3 words? by dannyspanner · · Score: 2

    From Apple's Firewire page:

    The FireWire advantage can be summed up in three words: speed, speed and more speed

    Now, call me a pedant, but that's five words.

    1. Re:"speed, speed and more speed" = 3 words? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pedant!

  70. Long Distance Firewire Only 100Mbit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Longer Distances (longer than 5m) for 1394b only allow transmission at 100Mbit. So it's no faster than ethernet (actually it's slower). Only the short 5m cables can go 800Mbits. Also, TI (creator of 1394 silicon) has yet to realease any chip faster than 800Mbit so that's why Apple doesn't support 1600 or 3200.

  71. Actually Not "Signal Compatible" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    1394b uses a new signaling scheme. That's part of why they changed the plug. Most ports however will be capable of using both the old and the new signaling schemes. However, as time goes on we'll see ports that only run in the new mode known as Beta mode.

  72. No FireWire 800 on 12" PowerBook by extra88 · · Score: 2

    Only the 17" PowerBook has the FireWire 800 port. Also, since the 12" PowerBook doesn't have a PC Card slot, you can't add it later.

  73. MSVC Re:Impossible to obfuscate C? by leuk_he · · Score: 2

    Save it as moon.c (cut and paste into a msvc edit window)

    Create a new "CONSOLE" PROJECT.

    add file moon.c to project.

    (compile, link &) run (ignore the warnings)

    works here.

  74. I can flip bits with one digit by Royster · · Score: 2

    I'm holding it up in front of me right now.

    --
    I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
    1. Re:I can flip bits with one digit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lol. ... I hope you can see this because I'm doing it as HARD as I can.

  75. Re:Perl: Programming Language? Not! by BeowulfSchaeffer · · Score: 1

    Real men and women only program in assembly. ;)

  76. Scalable to 3.2 GHz/sec by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    'Nuff said.

  77. USB has got faster by Ben+Hutchings · · Score: 2

    USB 2.0 (aka USB High-Speed) allows for speeds up to 480 Mb/s, which makes it much more competitive with Firewire. I think most PCs have been shipping with these ports for a few months now.

  78. Re:Here is a copy of the article in case it gets / by DaytonCIM · · Score: 1

    Moderation Totals: Redundant=3, Informative=1, Funny=1, Total=5.

    Twice mod points were wasted. You have to wonder what editors are thinking.

  79. firewaire 2 cableing by Brat+Food · · Score: 2

    FIrewire_b has different connectors to allow different types of cableing media, and for the higher speeds.

    4.5m[3200Mbs] for 9pin copper
    100m[3200Mbs] for glass optical fiber
    100m[100Mbs] over standard CAT-5 (tons of uses for this)
    50m[200Mbs] step index plastic optical fiber
    100m[200Mbs] hard polymer clad plastic optical fiber

    in other words. its now EXTREAMLY flexible, AND fuly backwards compatable.

    fom apples site:

    FireWire 800
    The FireWire advantage can be summed up in three words: speed, speed and more speed -- at 800Mbps, it has more than two times the usable bandwidth of USB 2.0, which makes it the perfect choice for high-speed storage and serious video capture. The extra speed of FireWire 800 over USB 2.0 makes FireWire much more suitable for bandwidth-intensive applications like video and graphics, which often consume hundreds or even thousands of megabytes of data per file. For instance, single hour of DV-format video consumes about 13 thousand megabytes (13 GB). Other benefits include:

    Highly efficient architecture. IEEE 1394b reduces delays in arbitration, while 8B10B encoding reduces signal distortion and increases throughput. (See technology brief for details.)

    Better user experience. No matter how you connect devices together, FireWire 800 just works. In fact, you can even loop your FireWire 800 chain back to your Mac for redundancy while performing live.

    Backwards compatibility. Manufacturers have adopted FireWire for a broad range of devices, such as DV cameras, hard drives, digital still cameras, professional audio, printers, scanners and home entertainment. Adapter cables for the FireWire 800 9-pin connector let you use these FireWire 400 products on the FireWire 800 port.

    Trailblazing features
    FireWire 400-based Digital Video editing enabled a revolution in desktop video production. The combination of low-cost, high-quality DV camcorders, built-in FireWire and Apple's award-winning Final Cut Pro and iMovie video editing software allows the creation of broadcast-quality video on desktop computers. FireWire 800 shares the revolutionary features of FireWire 400:

    Flexible connectivity options. Connect up to 63 computers and devices on a single bus -- you can even share a camera between two Macs.

    Real-time data delivery. Critical for audio and video applications where delayed or out-of-order frames are unacceptable, FireWire can guarantee isochronous delivery of data.

    On-bus power. While USB 2.0 allows at most 2.5W of power -- enough for a simple, slow device like a mouse -- FireWire devices can provide or consume up to 45W of power, plenty for high-performance disk drives and rapid battery charging. That's why iPod only needs one cord for both data and power.

    Plug-and-play connectivity. Simply plug in a device and it works. In Mac OS X, plugging in a DV camera launches iMovie, while connecting an iPod starts iTunes and automatically syncs your music library.

    --

    "Stuff... In my home!? NEVER!" - Zim on Invader Zim
    "I want the toilet seat!" - Little Dog on Two Stupid Dogs
  80. apples and oranges or -1, dumbass by captaincucumber · · Score: 1

    This is referred to as an "apples and oranges" comparison. computers and cars are different. If your computer crashes, you reboot it, if your car crashes, you're out several thousand dollars, and maybe dead. computers and cars are very different, there's really no point in comparing them, mr. Mach 1.2

  81. Re:New FireWire: DANG. by Obfuscant · · Score: 1
    2) Link length. 100 m? That's more than anyone needs for, well, anything.

    Bzzzz, and thanks for playing.

    I do science using cameras. There are places I have cameras that are more than 10m from the place the computer is (or can be). Some are nearly 100m. We're switching to firewire cameras, but the main hitch so far is the 1394a cable length limit. We've been waiting for 1394b for a year or more.

  82. Re: Computers use binary, remember? by Alsee · · Score: 2

    Yeah, some people look at me funny when I tell them I have 1010 fingers, 101 on each hand.

    -

    --
    - - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
  83. Which bit? by Tom7 · · Score: 2


    Read the truetype spec:
    it's at microsoft.com /typography

    1. Re:Which bit? by yerricde · · Score: 1

      it's at microsoft.com /typography

      Yes, but that's a lot longer than 76 bytes ;-)

      I was referring to the fact that the poem does not state which bit in the OS/2 chunk controls embedding.

      --
      Will I retire or break 10K?
    2. Re:Which bit? by Tom7 · · Score: 2

      I know. My response was supposed to be a haiku but the formatting got screwed up. ;)

  84. How many primes? by Tom7 · · Score: 2

    There are about x / (ln x - 1) primes less than x, so there are about

    227744933553988775903557975254897476817787897601 94 13955752667049156071539032268561888456759092523852 26840859485002804929486395765683516004898436591870 67148076554529504792809085095276779696724529102225 25608461421302099522103073978587867378036538137453 88172275208148731803295108467519843612456324165778 22681833625323037116520381032399426754453484747128 98895442005502311885787951105899116301208615827545 04419427244140970531796034937268154702619069093754 03532933958584374295760895574495930343271125392053 18511525199482501616282311294457575661607859419759 65027029905582349776107150425077368604313940757969 37005679771832 .. primes less than 2^2048. That's a lot. Just for comparison, there are just 4294967296 memory addresses on a 32-bit computer.

  85. Re:New FireWire: DANG. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    2) Link length. 100 m? That's more than anyone needs for, well, anything.

    Bzzzz, and thanks for playing.


    Bzzzz, thanks for quoting one line while wholly ignoring the next.

    And..."I do science" sounds...unscientific.

    Now, let's show the contestant what he's won!

    It's...(drumroll, please) A troll!

    Uh...Soviet Russian grits. yeah.

  86. Last Post! by alpg · · Score: 0

    One could not be a successful scientist without realizing that, in contrast
    to the popular conception supported by newspapers and mothers of scientists,
    a goodly number of scientists are not only narrow-minded and dull, but also
    just stupid.
    -- J.D. Watson, "The Double Helix"

    - this post brought to you by the Automated Last Post Generator...