Say you buy the product at retail, MS sees only a portion of that. We'll say they make a healthy 75% off of your purchase, $150. Then you buy this "discount" license directly from them. $190.
They just made *more* off of you by "saving" you money. In the process, they screw over the retailer. Talk about a racket.
Give a more substantial rebate, ~50%, and we'll talk. Until that comes, this is just a money-making scheme.
If Win2K looks like a house of cards, then Debian (stable) looks like...ah hell, something that alludes to ANCIENT TECH. Win2K has USB support. Has that been backported to (stable)? The best comparison to Windows 2000 (and now XP) is probably Debian (unstable). It is resonable stable, (much more so than (testing)) but has *some* current tech...
That reserved band may save you from 802.11b, your cordless phone, and hopefully the XCam, but the microwave is not going to suddeny stop giving off interference;)
The others are legitimate signals in the same frequency band, while th emicrowave just gives off lots of noise in that general portion of the EM spectrum.
So yes, you will see less interference. Just not when you're popping popcorn or heating TV dinners for your "watching the neighbors have sex over the XCam while wirelessly webcasting and telling your horny uncle about it on the phone" sessions.
Some people mention the fact Palm won't want to let their new catch loose at all, and I unfortunately tend to agree. The thing is, how long do you honestly expect Palm to survive? They're betting a lot on this, and may just get swallowed up by another company before they can get a truly new line of PDAs off the ground.
What about BeOS then? You can bet a purchaser of Palm will be primarily interested in their core business, not something as peripheral as BeOS. The way I see it, such a buyer could be quite a bit more receptive to releasing the BeOS in some way, unless said buyer is MS or Apple. Then the OS would be *dead*.
You sure about that, or just spouting numbers? I guess I don't really have any hard info either, but BeOS was a media kernel from the get-go, while the Darwin kernel came from a decidedly less media-centric family.
Then there's the fact OS 9 has insanely low latency. Something on the order of 1/5 the time for any Windows variant...
These numbers are rather fuzzy, as it's just what I recall for a third-party audio device that happened to be multi-platform. The company had benchmarked all three platforms and classic Mac was by far the fastest.
There was no reason to keep support for it lying around, but MS did anyway and it was responsible for a LOT of the instability in Windows 9x/2000.
Just FYI, DOS was gone in the "pro" MS OSes for years. There is no trace of it in NT, 2000, or XP.
2000 is actually quite stable in a production environment. It may not be as stable as a properly stripped-down and customized Linux install, but it's pretty damn close. It manages to do that with a good bit more user-friendliness.
Backwards compatability is good if the older stuff is still used. Also, the backwards compatability in ext3 does not break its implimentation.
The old stuff in DOS was still used by some people, that's why it's there. You know what? Much of Linux is not so much binary compatibility with previous releases, but it's idea compatibility with ancient software. If I was writing an OS from scratch, you can bet I would not target source compatibility with 60s software as my primary goal. That's what Linux is - a clone of old software. I find it quite amusing all these people insist Linux is the future, when all it really tried to do was emulate the past.
Back to filesystem design - just because it's still used, doesn't mean it should stay in use. You have to keep using something while the new it brought in...but justifying software's existence by the fact it's in use is the exact argument MS uses. EXT2 is dead. EXT3 is a hack on top of EXT2 to make it slightly more modern. Think of it liek Windows 3.1 on top of DOS. Now you get it. We need something new, and there are filesystems coming that will be the new thing. If you want to see where the Linux FS scene will be in a few years, look at BFS. Journalling, attributes, 64-bit, you name it. EXT3 only does a little of what an FS will have to do in the future. Don't ignorantly assume because somethigg can still be useful now it will be useful in the coming days.
This post is too late to be seen by much of anyone, but oh well...
I was going to be a lot of gaming on here this machine, in addition to work, and the gaming would be in a Windows 98 environment (Diablo 2, Baldur's Gate II:Throne of Bhaal, The Sims) there was very little reason to go with a dual processor machine.
Why use Win98? As pretty much anyone will tell you, Windows 2000 is much better from a stability/usability standpoint. As far as gaming goes, I have personally used two of those three games on my Win2k box, while the last one (The Sims) works fine on my roomie's 2000 box.
So, I would advise you upgrade. If you're just using Win98 because that's what your used to, or that's what you have, or just because you heard 2000 is "not good with games," you're missing out on a lot. Not just stability, but multi-processing. I have known the joys of a dual-CPU box, and I'm never going back.
At first, I was rather pleased with the decision to use the Linux kernel. It has proven itself capable, and is definitely capable of being cusomized to do a job well. Perhaps HURD would be better for the Be-architecture standpoint, but it's not far enough to really be basing entire other projects on it, IMHO.
On the other hand, I dishearntened to hear XFree was going to be used. X is notoriously bad at pretty much all the things Be could do well. Then I read a little more and realized X is just a stepping stone on the way - it provides a stable, well developed point to work with for now while the other APIs are fleshed out.
I think this approach will work well for the project - it allows functionality tobe put im place first, while it is abstract enough to replace most of the low-end without problems later. I hope the best for the project, and I'm excited by the recent number of BeOS-related OS projects. I hope one (or more!) of them get(s) to a truly usable state in the near future.
Anybody else realize that "hfnetchk" is just a bad-ass program name? It looks like it could be Russian, but it's just some bastardized English abbreviation.
Damn I love MS sometimes.
Though I really wonder about their dedication to user-friendliness. I don't even know what the "hf" stands for, but even "HF Network Check Tool" would be much simpler for the end-user.
And don't you dare say it's because of the 8.3 limitation. This is NT/2000 software here. Any filename restrictions that OS has is strictly ornamental. (Well, for backwards-compatibility, but for my purposes it might as well be vestigial organ #37)
from the story: Microsoft has added ``code-signing'' measures -- verification, supposedly, that downloads will be safe -- that could scare computer users away from using software that competes with Microsoft's offerings.
Does this mean MS is now legally responsible for problems? I've would imagine they're legally responsible for the software when they pop up a dialog to the effect of "this software has been verified for compatibility with Windows." Something like that, by my understanding, would make MS liable for the actions of that software.
Apple followed the HID standard with their keyboards, just like pretty much every recent manufacturer. The problem with that is HID codes are defined, with room for extension. The volume/CD eject keys fall under that category, and your Windows key mapping will be slightly strange.
I used an older Apple USB keyboard on my Windows 2000 machine for a while as a secondary. All the normal keys would work as expected. The left Mac option ke matched with the Windows alt key, and IIRC the Apple (command) key mapped to the left Windows key.
As I said, the HID stuff will be somewhat annoying. My main goal was to map the Mac power button to the Windows lock functionality. Most of the key remappers for Windows rely on a special Windows PS/2 subsytstem. Since USB/HID bypasses all PS/2 stuff, I found it impossible to remap the key.
So, basically, you can use the keyboard. Standard functionality will be there. Just don't expect the KB to do backflips for you.
When Leo (Mark) goes into the wacky space vortex the first time, you see him go past the other pod, spinning out of control. That tells me Pericles' ship lost power for a bit too.
CaLiMa is what the Apes refer to the ship's reckage as. I have a sign on the corner that says my street name. It's still a SIGN denoting a place or an object. It in itself is not the place or object.
perhaps have the virus check a pre-determined URL every 12-36 hours. If it can't reach the site, or it detects you have modified the HTML to a pre-defined trigger, it drops the payload.
Use free web space, and update it through myriad web-anonymizer sites.
Everybody seems to think of Blogger when they hear the term "online journal," but LJ has been a better experience for most users I've talked to. It's finally getting some press, and recognition as a write-in for the Peoples Voice awards.
That's what I thought at first too..."Fucking Macrovision...putting primates in my DVD collection now..." but then I realized it could be pretty cool. I mean, picture this: you're watching some chick flick with your SO, trying not to fall asleep during one of those scenes with that "dialog" thing. (Whatever that is...where are the explosions?)
The camera switches to a dramatic over-the-shoulder shot of the lead actress crying. For a split second...something doesn't seem right. Curious, you go back and watch each frame again...and THERE IT IS! A monkey is in a single frame, looking straight at you...and he's giving you the finger! Ah, things like that certainly make movies more bearable...
Slashdot Mirror
Say you buy the product at retail, MS sees only a portion of that. We'll say they make a healthy 75% off of your purchase, $150. Then you buy this "discount" license directly from them. $190.
They just made *more* off of you by "saving" you money. In the process, they screw over the retailer. Talk about a racket.
Give a more substantial rebate, ~50%, and we'll talk. Until that comes, this is just a money-making scheme.
If Win2K looks like a house of cards, then Debian (stable) looks like...ah hell, something that alludes to ANCIENT TECH. Win2K has USB support. Has that been backported to (stable)? The best comparison to Windows 2000 (and now XP) is probably Debian (unstable). It is resonable stable, (much more so than (testing)) but has *some* current tech...
That reserved band may save you from 802.11b, your cordless phone, and hopefully the XCam, but the microwave is not going to suddeny stop giving off interference ;)
The others are legitimate signals in the same frequency band, while th emicrowave just gives off lots of noise in that general portion of the EM spectrum.
So yes, you will see less interference. Just not when you're popping popcorn or heating TV dinners for your "watching the neighbors have sex over the XCam while wirelessly webcasting and telling your horny uncle about it on the phone" sessions.
Honestly, I'm not sure. The only reason I can think of is ensuring tracks are in perfect sync, but there have got to be other ways of doing that.
All I know is audio geeks get their panties all in a bunch when they have high latency.
Some people mention the fact Palm won't want to let their new catch loose at all, and I unfortunately tend to agree. The thing is, how long do you honestly expect Palm to survive? They're betting a lot on this, and may just get swallowed up by another company before they can get a truly new line of PDAs off the ground.
What about BeOS then? You can bet a purchaser of Palm will be primarily interested in their core business, not something as peripheral as BeOS. The way I see it, such a buyer could be quite a bit more receptive to releasing the BeOS in some way, unless said buyer is MS or Apple. Then the OS would be *dead*.
You sure about that, or just spouting numbers? I guess I don't really have any hard info either, but BeOS was a media kernel from the get-go, while the Darwin kernel came from a decidedly less media-centric family.
Then there's the fact OS 9 has insanely low latency. Something on the order of 1/5 the time for any Windows variant...
These numbers are rather fuzzy, as it's just what I recall for a third-party audio device that happened to be multi-platform. The company had benchmarked all three platforms and classic Mac was by far the fastest.
There was no reason to keep support for it lying around, but MS did anyway and it was responsible for a LOT of the instability in Windows 9x/2000.
Just FYI, DOS was gone in the "pro" MS OSes for years. There is no trace of it in NT, 2000, or XP.
2000 is actually quite stable in a production environment. It may not be as stable as a properly stripped-down and customized Linux install, but it's pretty damn close. It manages to do that with a good bit more user-friendliness.
Backwards compatability is good if the older stuff is still used. Also, the backwards compatability in ext3 does not break its implimentation.
The old stuff in DOS was still used by some people, that's why it's there. You know what? Much of Linux is not so much binary compatibility with previous releases, but it's idea compatibility with ancient software. If I was writing an OS from scratch, you can bet I would not target source compatibility with 60s software as my primary goal. That's what Linux is - a clone of old software. I find it quite amusing all these people insist Linux is the future, when all it really tried to do was emulate the past.
Back to filesystem design - just because it's still used, doesn't mean it should stay in use. You have to keep using something while the new it brought in...but justifying software's existence by the fact it's in use is the exact argument MS uses. EXT2 is dead. EXT3 is a hack on top of EXT2 to make it slightly more modern. Think of it liek Windows 3.1 on top of DOS. Now you get it. We need something new, and there are filesystems coming that will be the new thing. If you want to see where the Linux FS scene will be in a few years, look at BFS. Journalling, attributes, 64-bit, you name it. EXT3 only does a little of what an FS will have to do in the future. Don't ignorantly assume because somethigg can still be useful now it will be useful in the coming days.
This post is too late to be seen by much of anyone, but oh well...
I was going to be a lot of gaming on here this machine, in addition to work, and the gaming would be in a Windows 98 environment (Diablo 2, Baldur's Gate II:Throne of Bhaal, The Sims) there was very little reason to go with a dual processor machine.
Why use Win98? As pretty much anyone will tell you, Windows 2000 is much better from a stability/usability standpoint. As far as gaming goes, I have personally used two of those three games on my Win2k box, while the last one (The Sims) works fine on my roomie's 2000 box.
So, I would advise you upgrade. If you're just using Win98 because that's what your used to, or that's what you have, or just because you heard 2000 is "not good with games," you're missing out on a lot. Not just stability, but multi-processing. I have known the joys of a dual-CPU box, and I'm never going back.
At first, I was rather pleased with the decision to use the Linux kernel. It has proven itself capable, and is definitely capable of being cusomized to do a job well. Perhaps HURD would be better for the Be-architecture standpoint, but it's not far enough to really be basing entire other projects on it, IMHO.
On the other hand, I dishearntened to hear XFree was going to be used. X is notoriously bad at pretty much all the things Be could do well. Then I read a little more and realized X is just a stepping stone on the way - it provides a stable, well developed point to work with for now while the other APIs are fleshed out.
I think this approach will work well for the project - it allows functionality tobe put im place first, while it is abstract enough to replace most of the low-end without problems later. I hope the best for the project, and I'm excited by the recent number of BeOS-related OS projects. I hope one (or more!) of them get(s) to a truly usable state in the near future.
Have you forgotten Sony is one of the big labels? They put things in the market where they can without killing their own other markets...
You can bet any product will have just as much "content control" as any product out there.
Anybody else realize that "hfnetchk" is just a bad-ass program name? It looks like it could be Russian, but it's just some bastardized English abbreviation.
Damn I love MS sometimes.
Though I really wonder about their dedication to user-friendliness. I don't even know what the "hf" stands for, but even "HF Network Check Tool" would be much simpler for the end-user.
And don't you dare say it's because of the 8.3 limitation. This is NT/2000 software here. Any filename restrictions that OS has is strictly ornamental. (Well, for backwards-compatibility, but for my purposes it might as well be vestigial organ #37)
dangit, I always knew math would find a way to hunt me down and bitch-slap me with the cold-hard truth.
NO!
Make it two more sides. I want to be able to call it the Sexagon!
The .shtml links are archive-safe; they'll never get broken until slashdot gets broken.
.shtml links makes this post a bit more future-proof.
The article.pl links *will* die after a few weeks. Using the
...Better than Quake IV: Licensed to Clones
from the story:
Microsoft has added ``code-signing'' measures -- verification, supposedly, that downloads will be safe -- that could scare computer users away from using software that competes with Microsoft's offerings.
Does this mean MS is now legally responsible for problems? I've would imagine they're legally responsible for the software when they pop up a dialog to the effect of "this software has been verified for compatibility with Windows." Something like that, by my understanding, would make MS liable for the actions of that software.
Apple followed the HID standard with their keyboards, just like pretty much every recent manufacturer. The problem with that is HID codes are defined, with room for extension. The volume/CD eject keys fall under that category, and your Windows key mapping will be slightly strange.
I used an older Apple USB keyboard on my Windows 2000 machine for a while as a secondary. All the normal keys would work as expected. The left Mac option ke matched with the Windows alt key, and IIRC the Apple (command) key mapped to the left Windows key.
As I said, the HID stuff will be somewhat annoying. My main goal was to map the Mac power button to the Windows lock functionality. Most of the key remappers for Windows rely on a special Windows PS/2 subsytstem. Since USB/HID bypasses all PS/2 stuff, I found it impossible to remap the key.
So, basically, you can use the keyboard. Standard functionality will be there. Just don't expect the KB to do backflips for you.
When Leo (Mark) goes into the wacky space vortex the first time, you see him go past the other pod, spinning out of control. That tells me Pericles' ship lost power for a bit too.
CaLiMa is what the Apes refer to the ship's reckage as. I have a sign on the corner that says my street name. It's still a SIGN denoting a place or an object. It in itself is not the place or object.
Somehow it's inspiring to see just how long we've been killing each other.
Ever read/see 2001?
Better yet, ever read Genesis? Yeah, I think Cain pretty well illustrates the fact that murder was one of the first big crimes...
It's been going on a long time before mister Ice Guy.
perhaps have the virus check a pre-determined URL every 12-36 hours. If it can't reach the site, or it detects you have modified the HTML to a pre-defined trigger, it drops the payload.
Use free web space, and update it through myriad web-anonymizer sites.
Mwa ha ha! With these ideas, I shall create the super-virus! It will carry out all of these nefarious schemes, and then the world will be MINE!
...except /. is still around. Maybe if/when it dies, we'll have a place in the Web Site Darwin Awards reserved, though...
Hooray for LiveJournal!
Everybody seems to think of Blogger when they hear the term "online journal," but LJ has been a better experience for most users I've talked to. It's finally getting some press, and recognition as a write-in for the Peoples Voice awards.
That's what I thought at first too..."Fucking Macrovision...putting primates in my DVD collection now..." but then I realized it could be pretty cool. I mean, picture this: you're watching some chick flick with your SO, trying not to fall asleep during one of those scenes with that "dialog" thing. (Whatever that is...where are the explosions?)
The camera switches to a dramatic over-the-shoulder shot of the lead actress crying. For a split second...something doesn't seem right. Curious, you go back and watch each frame again...and THERE IT IS! A monkey is in a single frame, looking straight at you...and he's giving you the finger! Ah, things like that certainly make movies more bearable...