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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."

124 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. 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 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."
    7. 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
    8. Re:and the winner of uber geek 2002 is.... by RollingThunder · · Score: 3, Funny

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

    9. 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.
    10. 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.
    11. 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.

    12. 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.
    13. 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.
  2. "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 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

    2. 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

    3. 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.

    4. 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
    5. 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
    6. 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
    7. 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
    8. 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?
    9. 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!

    10. 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...
    11. 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
    12. 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.

    13. 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.

    14. 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?

    15. 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
    16. 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
    17. 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.

    18. 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

    19. 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. :)

    20. 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,
    21. 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.
    22. 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.

    23. 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.
  3. 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--
  4. 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

  5. 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 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!

    3. 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).

  6. 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...

  7. 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)
  8. 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 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
  9. 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...

  10. 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.

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

    I am a COMPUTER GOD!

  12. 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 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.

    2. 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?
    3. 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??

    4. 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?
    5. 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
    6. 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
    7. 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
    8. 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
    9. 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
    10. 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.

    11. 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

    12. 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
    13. 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.
    14. 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
  13. 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"
  14. 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 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.
  15. "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!
  16. 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 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

  17. 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.
  18. 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?

  19. 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.
  20. 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!

  21. 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.

  22. 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 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.

    2. 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...

  23. 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.

  24. 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.

  25. 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
  26. 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?

  27. 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 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
  28. 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
  29. 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 :)

  30. 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).

  31. 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.
  32. 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 ~
    $

  33. 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.

  34. 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.

  35. 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
  36. 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.
  37. 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.
  38. 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
  39. "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.

  40. 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.

  41. 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.

  42. 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
  43. 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.

  44. 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
  45. 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.
  46. Which bit? by Tom7 · · Score: 2


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

    1. Re:Which bit? by Tom7 · · Score: 2

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

  47. 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.