In the days of the SinclairSpectrum or in the US, the Timex TS2048 the programs came on tape. Initially (especially for games by Ultimate-Play The Game [now RareWare]) the tape would contain a small BASIC loader, which then loaded the binary game code and executed it.
One of the skills was to load the BASIC program, break it (stop it running) and find out where the binary game code loaded. Then you'd possibly manually load the binary and start looking around at the code. Using your trusty Z80 opcode-list you'd look for places where counters were decreased (lives reduced?). You'd also look for places where initial values were set (number of lives/amount of energy). These were pretty easy to do at the start. Once you knew the location, you could create a modified BASIC loader containing POKE statements. These would modify the contents of memory after the binary had loaded, but before it was executed. That way you could change the number of lives, or amount of energey or whatever..
Then things got a bit tricker. The developers would embed some machine code into the first line of the BASIC program. This special code would load the binary code, but using a different (non-standard) speed. This was the advent of the 'turbo-loader', the bane of most spectrum owners. With higher speed loading came the delicate balancing of the volume and tone controls on the tape desk. Get the controls wrong and the game would refuse to load.. or worse, the game would load all the way to the end, but crash either dumping you to the '(c) 1982 Sinclair Research' initial screen, or show flashing coloured blobs (sorta the equivalent of BSOD).
The other problem with turbo loaders was that you couldn't just load the binary on its own, you needed a special loader. Each game developer had their own set of routines for storing the binary data on tape. Some had cool things like counters, music or animated loading screens whilst you wait for the game to load.
People would 'decrypt' the developers loader and create their own programs to load the turbo-loader games and then hack them....
Anyway, I'm rambling..
..suffice to say, this isn't new. More complex, harder, maybe? More fun... hmmm. There's a big difference between doing this for a job, and doing it to get a namecheck in a crappy Sinclair Magazine!
XP Home & XP Professional are desktop operating systems. XP Server is the server OS, and it ain't out yet. 2000 is the only server product MS are pushing right now.
And of course as we all know, Linux is a server OS, and isn't ready for the desktop;)
Um... Note that they're selling both a 900/1900 version, and a 900/1800 version, which is targeted to Europe.
Exactly my point. The 'Europe' version, sure enough uses the two frequency ranges which we in Europe use. Yes I am based in Europe, and I use a network which is predominantly 1800 (Orange). So if I go to the US, I can't use the 'Europe' one.. The 'World' phone should have all three. This isnt a first by any means, there are tri-band phones out there.. Bosch do one, funnily enough, called a 'World phone'..
From geek.empeg.com - "A key design feature is that the car player uses software CODEC's and as such is not tied in to any particular format. Version 1.1 of the player includes both Microsoft WMA and raw WAV support. We also have the option to introduce AAC if the demand arises. The car player, even the Mk.1 version, is not a product that is expected to become obsolete any time soon!"
Hmm, maybe one should think first, and speak later..
..everyone remembers where they were when they first heard about Linux.
I was working as a Technician at a college in the Engineering department. One of the students starting raving on about this CD he had received containing loads of free (beer) software.. I remember him being a bit of a techy nerd. He had the beard and belly too.
I thought he was a fool "It'll never fly".
How I wish I had listened and got in early on. Then I too could be as righteous, patronising and superior as half the Linux community.
When I was at college, I wrote an Eliza program (didn't we all) on a Pr1me system in BASIC.
Eliza: Hello, how are you today?
Me: Fine
Eliza: Hello, how are you today?
Me: Not bad
Eliza: That's very negative
Me: f**k off
Eliza: That's not very nice
etc etc etc
All was okay until the lecturer tested it on a telytype and it dumped sending all sorts of control codes to the telytype...
You really had to lunge for the power button to prevent massive forest devastation
A lot of commercial apps have plugins for whatever DB you want to use. Once they wise up and provide plugins for DBs like RedHat DB, Postgres, MySQL and so on, we'll start to see higher market saturation.
The second thing which will help is when we get more commercial apps ported to Linux.
This is already happening. The product I use every day - SAP is available (commercially) for Linux. They support all the big DB vendors including Oracle, MSSQL (ok, not on Linux), Informix, DB2, and their own (open source) database SAPDB. I'm doing my bit, my site runs on PHP/MySQL.
He didn't say. Alistair Stewart is his name.... however I found this which may help!
Twelve Ways to Distinguish an Australian from a New Zealander
I am dismayed that Americans so often cannot tell the difference between a New Zealander and an Australian. It's true that they look and sound alike, but it's important to tell them apart-- certainly, they care about the difference. So, if you meet someone from Down Under, here are twelve easy tests to determine which country he's from:
1.Have him pronounce "six" (as in his answer to, "How old were you when you acquired a taste for beer?") If it rhymes with "seeks", he's an Australian.
2.Say the words, "All Blacks". If he smiles, he's from New Zealand. If he frowns, he's from Australia.
3.If he can interpret the sentence, "May I bring my abo mate to your barby this avo?", chances are he's Australian.
4.Take a look at his hat. If the brim is bent up against the crown, or if there's even one cork, he's an Aussie.
5.If he says, "I love my country, but I also like being abroad, because I enjoy going out at night once in awhile," he could only be a Kiwi.
6.Have him pronounce "pool". Only an Aussie could make it rhyme with "curl".
7.Ask him what the local slang for "gay man" is. Aussies prefer "poofter", while New Zealanders use the more informal "poof" or "queer".
8.Say the words, "convict colony", and watch his hands. If he clenches his fists reflexively, he's Australian.
9.Listen to the way he says "today" (as in responding to, "When's the right time for our next big party?") If it rhymes with "to die", he's an Aussie.
10.Ask, "what's your opinion about the taste of muttonbird: 'love it', 'hate it', or 'don't know'?" If he answers, "don't know", he's an Australian.
11.Listen to him say the words, "Let's dance". If he sounds like an American, he's from Australia. If he sounds like an Englishman-- or if he waits for you to say those words to him-- he's a Kiwi.
12.Look for the familiar Union-Jack-and-Southern-Cross flag about his person. Generally, Aussies like to show the flag and Kiwis don't. But if you're in any doubt, just remember that the Australian flag has "seeks" stars and the New Zealand flag only four.
Years ago I remember a UK news reader telling the following story... (I paraphrase) "we went to the ad-break and I told a joke to the crew in the studio about the difference between Australians and New Zealanders. A week or so later I got a letter of complaint from someone in New Zealand about my joke".
The reason being the cameras were regularly left on as the programme was being bounced around the world to other networks in other countries. Someone had a big ugly dish and rather than watch the broadcast via thier own provider including adverts, they watched the live feed from the UK.. and saw the joke..
What's to stop me taking the various bits and bobs from a number of utilities and selling it?
Aside from my morals of course? Who would know? Do people actually sit there reverse engineering programs here and there just to see if the original source was released under the GPL?
I know it's a good idea to integrate all these technologies, but sometimes it seems like people are connecting these things just for the sake of connecting them, not for any real greater purpose..
.. they'll be sending TCP via carrier pigeons next..
..at least we won't be needing IPV6 if we do this.. in fact we won't need IP at all.. we could just use good old zip codes for the addressing schema.. in fact why use birds, we already have a transport system for that.. the Royal Mail / UPS / DHL / USPS..
So we translate all our communication data into TCP datagrams.. print them out.. stick them in envelopes... write the zip code and house number on the outside.. genius!
SAP recently (CBit 2000 & 2001) released a couple of CDs containing free (90 day freely-renewable license) version of SAP R/3 on Linux, and their new Web Application Server, also on Linux.
Both 'Testdrive' CDs can be obtained either as ISOs from the SAP ftp server here (R/3 BASIS on Linux) and here (WAS on Linux).
Alternatively, for those without big fat pipes can order the CDs from SAP Shop
Both these demos use SAPDB as the underlying repository for storing ABAP programs at their associated data.
There's some documentation supplied with the CDs. In addition there's a wealth of documentation about SAP AGs products at help.sap.com.
I have a couple of forums on my website for discussion of these products. Feel free to drop by sapstuff.com, and visit the TestDrive CDs Discussion forum or the BASIS Forum (BASIS is the term for the underlying technology which the SAP applications use).
Slashdot Mirror
In the days of the Sinclair Spectrum or in the US, the Timex TS2048 the programs came on tape. Initially (especially for games by Ultimate-Play The Game [now RareWare]) the tape would contain a small BASIC loader, which then loaded the binary game code and executed it.
One of the skills was to load the BASIC program, break it (stop it running) and find out where the binary game code loaded. Then you'd possibly manually load the binary and start looking around at the code. Using your trusty Z80 opcode-list you'd look for places where counters were decreased (lives reduced?). You'd also look for places where initial values were set (number of lives/amount of energy). These were pretty easy to do at the start.
Once you knew the location, you could create a modified BASIC loader containing POKE statements. These would modify the contents of memory after the binary had loaded, but before it was executed. That way you could change the number of lives, or amount of energey or whatever..
Then things got a bit tricker. The developers would embed some machine code into the first line of the BASIC program. This special code would load the binary code, but using a different (non-standard) speed. This was the advent of the 'turbo-loader', the bane of most spectrum owners. With higher speed loading came the delicate balancing of the volume and tone controls on the tape desk. Get the controls wrong and the game would refuse to load.. or worse, the game would load all the way to the end, but crash either dumping you to the '(c) 1982 Sinclair Research' initial screen, or show flashing coloured blobs (sorta the equivalent of BSOD).
The other problem with turbo loaders was that you couldn't just load the binary on its own, you needed a special loader. Each game developer had their own set of routines for storing the binary data on tape. Some had cool things like counters, music or animated loading screens whilst you wait for the game to load.
People would 'decrypt' the developers loader and create their own programs to load the turbo-loader games and then hack them....
Anyway, I'm rambling..
..suffice to say, this isn't new. More complex, harder, maybe? More fun... hmmm. There's a big difference between doing this for a job, and doing it to get a namecheck in a crappy Sinclair Magazine!
Well done slashdot / Nailer / Timothy.
It was a BASIC derivative wasn't it?
XP Home & XP Professional are desktop operating systems. XP Server is the server OS, and it ain't out yet. 2000 is the only server product MS are pushing right now.
;)
And of course as we all know, Linux is a server OS, and isn't ready for the desktop
Um... Note that they're selling both a 900/1900 version, and a 900/1800 version, which is targeted to Europe.
Exactly my point. The 'Europe' version, sure enough uses the two frequency ranges which we in Europe use. Yes I am based in Europe, and I use a network which is predominantly 1800 (Orange). So if I go to the US, I can't use the 'Europe' one.. The 'World' phone should have all three. This isnt a first by any means, there are tri-band phones out there.. Bosch do one, funnily enough, called a 'World phone'..
Take the nice Sony VAIO's for instance: nice machines, but too small to really "use".
Rubbish! I use a Sony Vaio Picturebook every day.
Ok, so I have spine which resembles the curves of the Mississippi...
So where the spec says it's a 'world' phone, it aint.
IMO 900MHz + 1800MHz + 1900MHz = world phone.
Yeah, right. It isn't and wasn't /.ed at all.
From geek.empeg.com - "A key design feature is that the car player uses software CODEC's and as such is not tied in to any particular format. Version 1.1 of the player includes both Microsoft WMA and raw WAV support. We also have the option to introduce AAC if the demand arises. The car player, even the Mk.1 version, is not a product that is expected to become obsolete any time soon!"
Hmm, maybe one should think first, and speak later..
..everyone remembers where they were when they first heard about Linux.
I was working as a Technician at a college in the Engineering department. One of the students starting raving on about this CD he had received containing loads of free (beer) software.. I remember him being a bit of a techy nerd. He had the beard and belly too.
I thought he was a fool "It'll never fly".
How I wish I had listened and got in early on. Then I too could be as righteous, patronising and superior as half the Linux community.
When I was at college, I wrote an Eliza program (didn't we all) on a Pr1me system in BASIC.
Eliza: Hello, how are you today?
Me: Fine
Eliza: Hello, how are you today?
Me: Not bad
Eliza: That's very negative
Me: f**k off
Eliza: That's not very nice
etc etc etc
All was okay until the lecturer tested it on a telytype and it dumped sending all sorts of control codes to the telytype...
You really had to lunge for the power button to prevent massive forest devastation
It's the RMC (Right Mouse Click) crowd. With MSSQL came RMC - backup, RMC - add data file, RMC - almost anything.
Anyone can become a DBA, just like anyone with IIS can become a webmaster.. *cough*
and how long as SAPDB been opensource? Less than six months.
I agree with you though! >:|
Actually.. SAPDB is a fork of ADABAS. Software AG still sell ADABAS, whilst SAP do SAPDB.
A lot of commercial apps have plugins for whatever DB you want to use. Once they wise up and provide plugins for DBs like RedHat DB, Postgres, MySQL and so on, we'll start to see higher market saturation.
The second thing which will help is when we get more commercial apps ported to Linux.
This is already happening. The product I use every day - SAP is available (commercially) for Linux. They support all the big DB vendors including Oracle, MSSQL (ok, not on Linux), Informix, DB2, and their own (open source) database SAPDB.
I'm doing my bit, my site runs on PHP/MySQL.
He didn't say. Alistair Stewart is his name.... however I found this which may help!
Twelve Ways to Distinguish an Australian from a New Zealander
I am dismayed that Americans so often cannot tell the difference between a New Zealander and an Australian. It's true that they look and sound alike, but it's important to tell them apart-- certainly, they care about the difference. So, if you meet someone from Down Under, here are twelve easy tests to determine which country he's from:
1.Have him pronounce "six" (as in his answer to, "How old were you when you acquired a taste for beer?") If it rhymes with "seeks", he's an Australian.
2.Say the words, "All Blacks". If he smiles, he's from New Zealand. If he frowns, he's from Australia.
3.If he can interpret the sentence, "May I bring my abo mate to your barby this avo?", chances are he's Australian.
4.Take a look at his hat. If the brim is bent up against the crown, or if there's even one cork, he's an Aussie.
5.If he says, "I love my country, but I also like being abroad, because I enjoy going out at night once in awhile," he could only be a Kiwi.
6.Have him pronounce "pool". Only an Aussie could make it rhyme with "curl".
7.Ask him what the local slang for "gay man" is. Aussies prefer "poofter", while New Zealanders use the more informal "poof" or "queer".
8.Say the words, "convict colony", and watch his hands. If he clenches his fists reflexively, he's Australian.
9.Listen to the way he says "today" (as in responding to, "When's the right time for our next big party?") If it rhymes with "to die", he's an Aussie.
10.Ask, "what's your opinion about the taste of muttonbird: 'love it', 'hate it', or 'don't know'?" If he answers, "don't know", he's an Australian.
11.Listen to him say the words, "Let's dance". If he sounds like an American, he's from Australia. If he sounds like an Englishman-- or if he waits for you to say those words to him-- he's a Kiwi.
12.Look for the familiar Union-Jack-and-Southern-Cross flag about his person. Generally, Aussies like to show the flag and Kiwis don't. But if you're in any doubt, just remember that the Australian flag has "seeks" stars and the New Zealand flag only four.
Al.
Years ago I remember a UK news reader telling the following story... (I paraphrase) "we went to the ad-break and I told a joke to the crew in the studio about the difference between Australians and New Zealanders. A week or so later I got a letter of complaint from someone in New Zealand about my joke".
The reason being the cameras were regularly left on as the programme was being bounced around the world to other networks in other countries.
Someone had a big ugly dish and rather than watch the broadcast via thier own provider including adverts, they watched the live feed from the UK.. and saw the joke..
..is with MAME.. all those old games with whacky resolutions which don't translate well to LCD..
It's not about GM vs 2600, but Ford vs 2600.
What's to stop me taking the various bits and bobs from a number of utilities and selling it?
Aside from my morals of course? Who would know? Do people actually sit there reverse engineering programs here and there just to see if the original source was released under the GPL?
I know it's a good idea to integrate all these technologies, but sometimes it seems like people are connecting these things just for the sake of connecting them, not for any real greater purpose..
.. they'll be sending TCP via carrier pigeons next..
oh
..at least we won't be needing IPV6 if we do this.. in fact we won't need IP at all.. we could just use good old zip codes for the addressing schema.. in fact why use birds, we already have a transport system for that.. the Royal Mail / UPS / DHL / USPS..
So we translate all our communication data into TCP datagrams.. print them out.. stick them in envelopes... write the zip code and house number on the outside.. genius!
ah, no wait, that's a letter isn't it.
Al.
sapstuff.com
SAP recently (CBit 2000 & 2001) released a couple of CDs containing free (90 day freely-renewable license) version of SAP R/3 on Linux, and their new Web Application Server, also on Linux.
Both 'Testdrive' CDs can be obtained either as ISOs from the SAP ftp server here (R/3 BASIS on Linux) and here (WAS on Linux).
Alternatively, for those without big fat pipes can order the CDs from SAP Shop
Both these demos use SAPDB as the underlying repository for storing ABAP programs at their associated data.
There's some documentation supplied with the CDs. In addition there's a wealth of documentation about SAP AGs products at help.sap.com.
I have a couple of forums on my website for discussion of these products. Feel free to drop by sapstuff.com, and visit the TestDrive CDs Discussion forum or the BASIS Forum (BASIS is the term for the underlying technology which the SAP applications use).
Like Virgin or the BBC Radio 1 2 3 or 4
The only US station worth listening to IMO is WBAI for OTH a 2600 broadcast.
Does that mean it will run Zork III?
z-machine spec