SafeDisc has been around for quite some time.
It kind-of works, but breaks on a few different CD-ROM drives
SAFEAUDIO is what we are talking about here and is a completely different beast
--kai
I feel I must write to express my disappointment with Macrovision's latest venture into copy protecting media, SAFEAUDIO.
As one who enjoys a exceedingly wide range of music, I strongly believe this will do nothing more than hurt the market it is designed to protect.
The following quote, taken directly from your press release at http://www.macrovision.com/press_rel_2_27_01.html is particularly worrying:
"We believe that SAFEAUDIO provides an opportunity for the music industry to regain the billions of dollars lost to unauthorized casual copying."
If I understand the press release correctly, what this means is that I will be unable to copy SAFEAUDIO from one medium to another.
I purchase quite a lot of music on CD to listen to at home and have a MiniDisc player in my car. I travel quite a lot and like to listen to music while I do so. Under existing copyright laws I am permitted to record a CD to MD for my own personal usage, and indeed I pay a tax on every blank MiniDisc that I purchase just for this privilege.
Can you please assure me that I will be able to continue to do this in the future, even with SAFEAUDIO protected media?
This sounds (vaguely) similar to the RPC (Region Protection Code) that they have in DVD-ROM drives.
In all consumer drives that i've seen or heard of, they store the region code directly in their firmware, and allow you a limited (4-5) amount of times you can change it to another region.
This is RPC2.
With development models of the drives, the RPC1 drives, the region code isn't stored on the drive at all, instead the OS keeps track of it, so even if you've changed region the maximum number of times, you can reset the drive (delete the registry key or whatever) and you're back where you started.
Changing the RPC2 drive to RPC1 is as easy as doing a google search for the drive model number and a few other keywords (eg. RPC1 firmware download) and re-flashing the drive.
I'd imagine that the situation will be very similar with whatever scheme they force upon us with CPRM.
-- kai
Get over it. You didn't sign up so they could put you in the CEO's chair from the word go, you signed up so you could see what it would be like on the job. This experience you've gained is probably very close to what they'd have you do as a brand-new employee. If you don't like it, pick another field.
Well, all these methods kind-of touch on various things you need to do to ensure data is irrecoverable.
Now, we can discard 3/4 of the posts that have something along the lines of "destroy the platters" as you _don't_ want to do that.
Next, overwriting with random data a few times is good. You will need to overwrite many times, using both sequential and random access patterns. If using just, say, sequential access (a-la format, even a low level one) there will be recoverable traces of your data at the edges of the tracks. The hard drive itself can't recover this data, but experts can.
Then overwrite the drive multiple times, not with random data, but with a fixed pattern to fully magnetize with the new data, say overwrite it with 0xFF multiple times in a row (sequential and random access) and then with 0x00, again multiple times in sequential and random access patterns)
Then you will need an implicit knowledge of the particular drive geometry and encoding methods, so you can calculate Worst Case Scenarios for both access patterns and data modulation.
One poster mentioned the old MFM worst case data pattern of 0xDAC3. This will be differnet with newer drives and encoding schemes.
Do this a few times and you should be safe
-- kai
Well, it became free as it was primarily universities and government departments funding it to start out with and businesses just weren't online because there was no reason for them to be.
One major factor in why it stayed free is that Microsoft completely ignored it for way too long, then tried to set up their own MSN in competition instead of focussing on taking it over and trying to get controls put on it
-- kai
A properly driven [read: digital] LCD, say the Apple Cinema Display, is brighter and clearer than a CRT. A good quality CRT (Sony Trinitron or Mitsubishi Diamondtron) will be the next best thing, and as far as price/performance goes, the CRT wins hands down.
I spend all day looking at a LCD, even if it is only a passive matrix, and i find much easier on the eyes than a CRT, the exception being when stuff moves around, and a good active matrix pretty much eliminates this problem.
As far as EMF and power consumption goes, LCDs come out far better.
If price was no object, then i'd much rather have a high quality LCD (have you actually looked at a Cinema Display with your own eyes, rather than reading reviews) but for my home PC, there's no way i'd fork out the $$$, and instead will get a flat screen trinitron.
-- kai
I can't remember the name of the game, but a number of hears ago (>10) i can remember playing a SEGA racing game that used technololgy that would have to be along these lines
It was a sit-in F1 style racer, with a hige monitor up front with this weird plastic lens covering the monitor, and from the driver's seat, the 3D effect was pretty damn good.
this was around the same time (give or take a year or so) that another 3D game came out that used digitized footage of live actors in a game that was done like Dragon's Lair (view footage, hit joystick or button at the right time to progress to the next scene) however this game used a round circular table, with a spherical mirror behind it to project a "hologram" onto the playfield
anyone else remember these two games?
-- kai
if i just had something like, say, Win2k your prayers would be answered.
hit the sleep button on your keyboard (you do have a funky MS keyboard, don't you) and in a few seconds your computer is off
hit any key on the keyboard and about ten seconds later you are _exactly_ where you left off, the same mp3 playing in the background, the same video running under quicktime and the same documents open in photoshop
easy!
--kai
At the risk of sounding redundant, MiniDisc is exactly what you want...
It can store 74 minutes of high-quality stereo on a 2.5" disc, housed in a protective cover.
the media is cheap and you can get it anywhere, no need to buy expensive flash cards.
when recording in mono on a standard recodring walkman, the recodring time is doubled.
the newer models from Sony
can recodr up to 320 minutes in MDLP mode on one disc, check out the MZ-R900 on Minidisco.
i've had a MZ-R50 for many years now, and it's still going strong, they are built to last.
Firstly a little defence of Bose.
While their Acoustimass systems are more for appearance than actual performance, they aren't the only range of speakers that they make.
Bose also make some excellent Direct/Reflecting speakers (their x01 range) i have some 301's and they're great.
As for amps, with good sound, decent features and quality digital components, go for Yamaha. Their Natural Sound range of amps/recievers are excellent value for money.
Get some decent full-size bose speakers, and match them to a yamaha amp and you won't look back
-- kai
There are also inherently serious problems with using blue lasers. Consumer deviced demand the low power consumption, robustness and ease of manufacturing that only a diode laser source can provide.
Checking some websites reveals there are precious few manufactures making these things.
What is more a clincher though is the lifetime of these deviced is measured in the 100s of hours of usage, which is unacceptable for something that needs to work for hours at a stretch.
Aside from the issue mentioned earlier that DVD is pretty much what HD-CD would be, and it's only due to the consumer market that these devices have become realistic for the IT market...
-- kai
GLV was conceived specifically as the heart of an image delivery system for digital cinema to replace film projectors in theaters. But the opportunities GLV offers for presentation graphics, home theater, or any venue or environment where high light output and high resolution are requirements, haven't gone unnoticed by the big names in consumer and professional display products. Spin-offs of the GLV technology are already on the drawing boards to revolutionize the optical communications market.
Unlike other electro-optical concepts such as the Texas Instrument Micro-Mirror system (also known as DLP), the Silicon Light Machines GLV design incorporates five addressable micro strips to create each individual pixel. This unique design allows each pixel to be turned full on or off, or somewhere in between. The result is that GLV can deliver black level and shadow detail equal to that of the tried-and-true cathode ray tube (CRT), and with resolution and light output capabilities that surpass today's CRT, LCD and DLP technologies. A laser light system is at the heart of the Grating Light Valve engine, allowing light output capabilities up to an incredible 30,000 lumens.
They're not proposing it (initally) as a replacement for Trinitron screens, rather as a high-end high-res digital projection system for movie theatres and trickling down to projection TVs... as well as targetting it as an optical switch for communications... too cool!
-- kai
Well, there are two basic models for describing colour. for the purpose of this discussion, we'll be ignoring models like YUV and CIELab and the like, and concentrate on the basics.
Colour is no more than light of various wavelengths being picked up by your eyes.
there are two methods we have to get "coloured" light into your eye... either have it reflected off an object, or transmitted through an object.
when dealing with transmitted light, we use the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) colour model. forget everything you learned in school about Red, Yellow and Blue being the primaries, they're wrong.
when dealing with reflected light, we have to use the complimentary colours for Red, Green and Blue... namely Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (and for printing purposes, to decrease ink coverages and improve contrast we add Black [K] to this mix) giving us the CMYK colour model.
human eyes have four types of light sensitive cells in them. one set that are sensitive to Red light, one set sensitive to Green light, one set that react to Blue light [Cone Cells] and one set that are not as sensitive to colour as they are to the presence or absence of light [Rod Cells].
Now, as for RGB not modelling the tange of human colour vision, RGB _monitors_ can't display every colour we can see, however a perfect RGB space can reproduce any colour we can see, bearing in mind that some surfaces _interfere_ with light, such as the wings of a butterfly and appear to be a colour that they are not.
Back to RGB and CMY - When mixing pigments to produce colour, instead of mixing pure light, it's a subtractive colour model. we use, say, cyan pigment to subtract red light from the picture, magenta subtracts green light and yellow subtracts blue light. when mixing light, we use the additive colour model, adding various amounts of red, green or blue light.
the human eye is most sensitive to light in the green areas of the spectrum, and red/green colour blindness is caused by varying ratios of red to green sensitive cone cells. total colour blindness is caused by no cone cells, only rod cells in the eyse, giving this person superior night vision =)
anyway, that's enough, for more info, browse some of the links that have been posted here
-- kai
Well, IMHO ArcServ blows chunks.
i've been forced to have it installed on my NT Server by the powers that be, and i don't like it one bit.
It's top heavy, installs all kind of shite on the system and, well, i just do not like it one bit.
If you are looking for good quality, ease of configuration and _most importantly_ ease of restoration, look no further than Retrospect from Dantz, they've even got a free 30 day trial version there.
I've used it in an environment where the DAT backup was long-term offline storage of high res images, and it's simply the easiest software i've used.
for hardcore users, it may not have all the features of something like ArcServ, but for day-to-day use, and sheer ease of administration, you can't beat it
Check out the MDR-NC5 Noise Cancelling Headphones from Sony and be amazed.
I bought a pair of these during a stopover in Tokyo and i'll _never_ take another long haul plane flight without them
They do a remarkably good job at filtering out background noise, especially lower frequencies.
there are a few models, the lightweight ones i've linked to, some bud-type in-ear ones (that stick out of your ear and look like something from the original Star Trek and some nice, comfy fully-enclosed cans as well
they run for ages off a single AAA battery, and as well as cancelling background noise, they also slightly amplify the audio playback...
just in case that long URL comes through with spaces in it, it's
http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/consumer/ss5/office/ac cessories/noisecancelingheadphones/mdr-n c5.shtml
surf over to naviscope and grab their accelerator.
it's a great product, small footprint and seems quite stable, and best of all it works as advertised.
it's got excellent filtering options for blocking ads, on a site-by-site basis, and it's other features make it well worth the download
All the people who are saying that a watermark will be removed after MP3ing the file, or making an analog recording of the file obviously have no idea whatsoever about how the watermarking process works.
Now, I'll confess I don't know a heap about the audio watermarking schemes, but I have spend a lot of time using watermarks in digital images.
These watermarks (you can vary the "strength" of them when you add them) are amazingly robust.
I was able to add a watermark to an image, that i couldn't see (it was like adding 3-4 noise in Photoshop) and print the image, as a halftone image on a 600dpi laser printer, scan the image back in on a desktop flatbed scanner and the watermark was still detectable.
I was able to JPEG encode the original image, at a _very_ low quality setting, and the watermark was still there
Do you not think that the SDMI collective haven't thought about perceptual encoding of audio files and are working around it?
All these people who claim otherwise don't know what they are talking about
-- kai
to get non Windows clients to use internet connection sharing?
nothing special at all
simply set them up to use DHCP and off you go
the Windows machine sets itself up as a DHCP server and as the gateway on the LAN and as an added bonus any machine going through the Internet Connection Sharing machine is unable to be accessed from the internet at large.
all you need is some good firewall software on the computer that is actually dialing up to the internet...
-- kai
From reading over a few of these articles, it appears that the physicists of today are now just verifying the existance of the aether that was thought to permeate free space.
The Higgs field is a [hypothetical] field that extends throughout the vacuum and by particles moving through it they are given mass and inertia.
It has been posted further down the page, however here it is again:
Have a look at http://hepwww.ph.qmw.ac.uk/epp/higgs.html for some down-to-earth explainations of the Higgs field and the particle it uses.
Now I don't think that the XBox will be the be all and end all of consoles, Nintendo and Sony wear the crown here.
What I believe it will do is give PC games a good kick in the arse... PC Games currently rely on the gamer having the latest shit-hot hardware to do the flashy graphics, and if your PC is a generation old or more, forget it.
With a reference platform for windows based games (XBox) this will help prolong the life of a PC because a game written in a year's time for the XBox will also work on a similar vintage PC.
Two years down the track, _if_ the XBox is still doing it's thing, games written for it will still run well on older PCs.
Don't tell me games won't improve with a fixed hardware platform. take a look at, say, the original Ridge Racer and then play GranTurismo 2. If I didn't know better, i would swear that they are running on different hardware.
The XBox will teach programmers to return to hand making _efficient_ code that extracts the most it can from the hardware, rather than saying "Well, this runs a little slow now, but when it's released people will have fast enough PC's to run it"
I don't want an XBox myself, all i need is a PS2, however i believe this will be a Good Thing for the PC Games Industry.
-- kai
Well, here are my comments on what i have actually done...
my favourite keyboards are the _old_ Apple Design II Keyboards, you could practically stop bullets with them.
when they got spilled on (coke is the worst) i would rinse them under plenty of cold, running water (after disconnecting them) and leave them to dry. for crumbs etc, take the back off and shake clean.
for cleaning keys, rubbing alcohol works, as does pretty much any solvent (metho, WD40, windex[ammonia], acetone:-P) no, don't use acetone, you'll melt your kbd.
to clean the key tops, just rub them with a rag, moistened with your favourite solvent, otherwise do the screwdriver/ruler/fingernail thing and pop them off, they will snap on, the space bar is the only difficult one.
for membrane keyboards, they pretty much don't neek cleaning, it's pretty hard to get crap between the membrane and the contacts, just rinse and dry in a warm place (on top of the hot water cylinder is good)
can anyone out there in net.land comment on how ogg compares to sony's ATRAC compression, used on MiniDiscs and now in their MemoryStick audio products?
I've seen repeatedly that atrac sounds better than an mp3 at the same bitrate, but things like this are pretty hard to quantify...
if there are any refs to ogg vs atrac, i'd love to see them.
-- kai
Well, look no further than the latest offering from Sony, the PlayStation2... The GS and EE are capable of providing hardware accelerated NURBS, and are getting put to very good use in new titles...
Slashdot Mirror
SafeDisc has been around for quite some time.
It kind-of works, but breaks on a few different CD-ROM drives
SAFEAUDIO is what we are talking about here and is a completely different beast
--kai
Verbing Weirds Language.
Dear Mr Chuang,
I feel I must write to express my disappointment with Macrovision's latest venture into copy protecting media, SAFEAUDIO.
As one who enjoys a exceedingly wide range of music, I strongly believe this will do nothing more than hurt the market it is designed to protect.
The following quote, taken directly from your press release at http://www.macrovision.com/press_rel_2_27_01.html is particularly worrying: "We believe that SAFEAUDIO provides an opportunity for the music industry to regain the billions of dollars lost to unauthorized casual copying."
If I understand the press release correctly, what this means is that I will be unable to copy SAFEAUDIO from one medium to another.
I purchase quite a lot of music on CD to listen to at home and have a MiniDisc player in my car. I travel quite a lot and like to listen to music while I do so. Under existing copyright laws I am permitted to record a CD to MD for my own personal usage, and indeed I pay a tax on every blank MiniDisc that I purchase just for this privilege.
Can you please assure me that I will be able to continue to do this in the future, even with SAFEAUDIO protected media?
Thankyou,
--
Kai Howells
IT Specialist.
Verbing Weirds Language.
Two Words: South Park.
Verbing Weirds Language.
This sounds (vaguely) similar to the RPC (Region Protection Code) that they have in DVD-ROM drives.
In all consumer drives that i've seen or heard of, they store the region code directly in their firmware, and allow you a limited (4-5) amount of times you can change it to another region.
This is RPC2.
With development models of the drives, the RPC1 drives, the region code isn't stored on the drive at all, instead the OS keeps track of it, so even if you've changed region the maximum number of times, you can reset the drive (delete the registry key or whatever) and you're back where you started.
Changing the RPC2 drive to RPC1 is as easy as doing a google search for the drive model number and a few other keywords (eg. RPC1 firmware download) and re-flashing the drive.
I'd imagine that the situation will be very similar with whatever scheme they force upon us with CPRM.
-- kai
Verbing Weirds Language.
Get over it. You didn't sign up so they could put you in the CEO's chair from the word go, you signed up so you could see what it would be like on the job. This experience you've gained is probably very close to what they'd have you do as a brand-new employee. If you don't like it, pick another field.
Verbing Weirds Language.
Well, all these methods kind-of touch on various things you need to do to ensure data is irrecoverable.
Now, we can discard 3/4 of the posts that have something along the lines of "destroy the platters" as you _don't_ want to do that.
Next, overwriting with random data a few times is good. You will need to overwrite many times, using both sequential and random access patterns. If using just, say, sequential access (a-la format, even a low level one) there will be recoverable traces of your data at the edges of the tracks. The hard drive itself can't recover this data, but experts can.
Then overwrite the drive multiple times, not with random data, but with a fixed pattern to fully magnetize with the new data, say overwrite it with 0xFF multiple times in a row (sequential and random access) and then with 0x00, again multiple times in sequential and random access patterns)
Then you will need an implicit knowledge of the particular drive geometry and encoding methods, so you can calculate Worst Case Scenarios for both access patterns and data modulation.
One poster mentioned the old MFM worst case data pattern of 0xDAC3. This will be differnet with newer drives and encoding schemes.
Do this a few times and you should be safe
-- kai
Verbing Weirds Language.
Well, it became free as it was primarily universities and government departments funding it to start out with and businesses just weren't online because there was no reason for them to be.
One major factor in why it stayed free is that Microsoft completely ignored it for way too long, then tried to set up their own MSN in competition instead of focussing on taking it over and trying to get controls put on it
-- kai
Verbing Weirds Language.
A properly driven [read: digital] LCD, say the Apple Cinema Display, is brighter and clearer than a CRT. A good quality CRT (Sony Trinitron or Mitsubishi Diamondtron) will be the next best thing, and as far as price/performance goes, the CRT wins hands down.
I spend all day looking at a LCD, even if it is only a passive matrix, and i find much easier on the eyes than a CRT, the exception being when stuff moves around, and a good active matrix pretty much eliminates this problem.
As far as EMF and power consumption goes, LCDs come out far better.
If price was no object, then i'd much rather have a high quality LCD (have you actually looked at a Cinema Display with your own eyes, rather than reading reviews) but for my home PC, there's no way i'd fork out the $$$, and instead will get a flat screen trinitron.
-- kai
Verbing Weirds Language.
I can't remember the name of the game, but a number of hears ago (>10) i can remember playing a SEGA racing game that used technololgy that would have to be along these lines
It was a sit-in F1 style racer, with a hige monitor up front with this weird plastic lens covering the monitor, and from the driver's seat, the 3D effect was pretty damn good.
this was around the same time (give or take a year or so) that another 3D game came out that used digitized footage of live actors in a game that was done like Dragon's Lair (view footage, hit joystick or button at the right time to progress to the next scene) however this game used a round circular table, with a spherical mirror behind it to project a "hologram" onto the playfield
anyone else remember these two games?
-- kai
Verbing Weirds Language.
if i just had something like, say, Win2k your prayers would be answered.
hit the sleep button on your keyboard (you do have a funky MS keyboard, don't you) and in a few seconds your computer is off
hit any key on the keyboard and about ten seconds later you are _exactly_ where you left off, the same mp3 playing in the background, the same video running under quicktime and the same documents open in photoshop
easy!
--kai
Verbing Weirds Language.
At the risk of sounding redundant, MiniDisc is exactly what you want...
It can store 74 minutes of high-quality stereo on a 2.5" disc, housed in a protective cover. the media is cheap and you can get it anywhere, no need to buy expensive flash cards.
when recording in mono on a standard recodring walkman, the recodring time is doubled. the newer models from Sony can recodr up to 320 minutes in MDLP mode on one disc, check out the MZ-R900 on Minidisco.
i've had a MZ-R50 for many years now, and it's still going strong, they are built to last.
it's a sony...
Verbing Weirds Language.
Firstly a little defence of Bose.
While their Acoustimass systems are more for appearance than actual performance, they aren't the only range of speakers that they make.
Bose also make some excellent Direct/Reflecting speakers (their x01 range) i have some 301's and they're great.
As for amps, with good sound, decent features and quality digital components, go for Yamaha. Their Natural Sound range of amps/recievers are excellent value for money.
Get some decent full-size bose speakers, and match them to a yamaha amp and you won't look back
-- kai
Verbing Weirds Language.
There are also inherently serious problems with using blue lasers. Consumer deviced demand the low power consumption, robustness and ease of manufacturing that only a diode laser source can provide.
Checking some websites reveals there are precious few manufactures making these things.
What is more a clincher though is the lifetime of these deviced is measured in the 100s of hours of usage, which is unacceptable for something that needs to work for hours at a stretch. Aside from the issue mentioned earlier that DVD is pretty much what HD-CD would be, and it's only due to the consumer market that these devices have become realistic for the IT market...
-- kai
From the site:
The capabilities of GLV
GLV was conceived specifically as the heart of an image delivery system for digital cinema to replace film projectors in theaters. But the opportunities GLV offers for presentation graphics, home theater, or any venue or environment where high light output and high resolution are requirements, haven't gone unnoticed by the big names in consumer and professional display products. Spin-offs of the GLV technology are already on the drawing boards to revolutionize the optical communications market.
Unlike other electro-optical concepts such as the Texas Instrument Micro-Mirror system (also known as DLP), the Silicon Light Machines GLV design incorporates five addressable micro strips to create each individual pixel. This unique design allows each pixel to be turned full on or off, or somewhere in between. The result is that GLV can deliver black level and shadow detail equal to that of the tried-and-true cathode ray tube (CRT), and with resolution and light output capabilities that surpass today's CRT, LCD and DLP technologies. A laser light system is at the heart of the Grating Light Valve engine, allowing light output capabilities up to an incredible 30,000 lumens.
They're not proposing it (initally) as a replacement for Trinitron screens, rather as a high-end high-res digital projection system for movie theatres and trickling down to projection TVs... as well as targetting it as an optical switch for communications... too cool!
-- kai
Well, there are two basic models for describing colour. for the purpose of this discussion, we'll be ignoring models like YUV and CIELab and the like, and concentrate on the basics.
Colour is no more than light of various wavelengths being picked up by your eyes.
there are two methods we have to get "coloured" light into your eye... either have it reflected off an object, or transmitted through an object.
when dealing with transmitted light, we use the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) colour model. forget everything you learned in school about Red, Yellow and Blue being the primaries, they're wrong.
when dealing with reflected light, we have to use the complimentary colours for Red, Green and Blue... namely Cyan, Magenta and Yellow (and for printing purposes, to decrease ink coverages and improve contrast we add Black [K] to this mix) giving us the CMYK colour model.
human eyes have four types of light sensitive cells in them. one set that are sensitive to Red light, one set sensitive to Green light, one set that react to Blue light [Cone Cells] and one set that are not as sensitive to colour as they are to the presence or absence of light [Rod Cells].
Now, as for RGB not modelling the tange of human colour vision, RGB _monitors_ can't display every colour we can see, however a perfect RGB space can reproduce any colour we can see, bearing in mind that some surfaces _interfere_ with light, such as the wings of a butterfly and appear to be a colour that they are not.
Back to RGB and CMY - When mixing pigments to produce colour, instead of mixing pure light, it's a subtractive colour model. we use, say, cyan pigment to subtract red light from the picture, magenta subtracts green light and yellow subtracts blue light. when mixing light, we use the additive colour model, adding various amounts of red, green or blue light.
the human eye is most sensitive to light in the green areas of the spectrum, and red/green colour blindness is caused by varying ratios of red to green sensitive cone cells. total colour blindness is caused by no cone cells, only rod cells in the eyse, giving this person superior night vision =)
anyway, that's enough, for more info, browse some of the links that have been posted here
-- kai
Well, IMHO ArcServ blows chunks.
i've been forced to have it installed on my NT Server by the powers that be, and i don't like it one bit.
It's top heavy, installs all kind of shite on the system and, well, i just do not like it one bit.
If you are looking for good quality, ease of configuration and _most importantly_ ease of restoration, look no further than Retrospect from Dantz, they've even got a free 30 day trial version there.
I've used it in an environment where the DAT backup was long-term offline storage of high res images, and it's simply the easiest software i've used.
for hardcore users, it may not have all the features of something like ArcServ, but for day-to-day use, and sheer ease of administration, you can't beat it
-- kai
Check out the MDR-NC5 Noise Cancelling Headphones from Sony and be amazed.
c cessories/noisecancelingheadphones/mdr-n c5.shtml
I bought a pair of these during a stopover in Tokyo and i'll _never_ take another long haul plane flight without them They do a remarkably good job at filtering out background noise, especially lower frequencies.
there are a few models, the lightweight ones i've linked to, some bud-type in-ear ones (that stick out of your ear and look like something from the original Star Trek and some nice, comfy fully-enclosed cans as well
they run for ages off a single AAA battery, and as well as cancelling background noise, they also slightly amplify the audio playback...
just in case that long URL comes through with spaces in it, it's
http://www.sel.sony.com/SEL/consumer/ss5/office/a
surf over to naviscope and grab their accelerator.
it's a great product, small footprint and seems quite stable, and best of all it works as advertised.
it's got excellent filtering options for blocking ads, on a site-by-site basis, and it's other features make it well worth the download
-- kai
All the people who are saying that a watermark will be removed after MP3ing the file, or making an analog recording of the file obviously have no idea whatsoever about how the watermarking process works. Now, I'll confess I don't know a heap about the audio watermarking schemes, but I have spend a lot of time using watermarks in digital images. These watermarks (you can vary the "strength" of them when you add them) are amazingly robust. I was able to add a watermark to an image, that i couldn't see (it was like adding 3-4 noise in Photoshop) and print the image, as a halftone image on a 600dpi laser printer, scan the image back in on a desktop flatbed scanner and the watermark was still detectable. I was able to JPEG encode the original image, at a _very_ low quality setting, and the watermark was still there Do you not think that the SDMI collective haven't thought about perceptual encoding of audio files and are working around it? All these people who claim otherwise don't know what they are talking about -- kai
to get non Windows clients to use internet connection sharing? nothing special at all simply set them up to use DHCP and off you go the Windows machine sets itself up as a DHCP server and as the gateway on the LAN and as an added bonus any machine going through the Internet Connection Sharing machine is unable to be accessed from the internet at large. all you need is some good firewall software on the computer that is actually dialing up to the internet... -- kai
From reading over a few of these articles, it appears that the physicists of today are now just verifying the existance of the aether that was thought to permeate free space.
The Higgs field is a [hypothetical] field that extends throughout the vacuum and by particles moving through it they are given mass and inertia.
It has been posted further down the page, however here it is again:
Have a look at http://hepwww.ph.qmw.ac.uk/epp/higgs.html for some down-to-earth explainations of the Higgs field and the particle it uses.
-- kai
Now I don't think that the XBox will be the be all and end all of consoles, Nintendo and Sony wear the crown here.
What I believe it will do is give PC games a good kick in the arse... PC Games currently rely on the gamer having the latest shit-hot hardware to do the flashy graphics, and if your PC is a generation old or more, forget it.
With a reference platform for windows based games (XBox) this will help prolong the life of a PC because a game written in a year's time for the XBox will also work on a similar vintage PC.
Two years down the track, _if_ the XBox is still doing it's thing, games written for it will still run well on older PCs.
Don't tell me games won't improve with a fixed hardware platform. take a look at, say, the original Ridge Racer and then play GranTurismo 2. If I didn't know better, i would swear that they are running on different hardware.
The XBox will teach programmers to return to hand making _efficient_ code that extracts the most it can from the hardware, rather than saying "Well, this runs a little slow now, but when it's released people will have fast enough PC's to run it"
I don't want an XBox myself, all i need is a PS2, however i believe this will be a Good Thing for the PC Games Industry.
-- kai
Well, here are my comments on what i have actually done...
:-P) no, don't use acetone, you'll melt your kbd.
my favourite keyboards are the _old_ Apple Design II Keyboards, you could practically stop bullets with them.
when they got spilled on (coke is the worst) i would rinse them under plenty of cold, running water (after disconnecting them) and leave them to dry. for crumbs etc, take the back off and shake clean.
for cleaning keys, rubbing alcohol works, as does pretty much any solvent (metho, WD40, windex[ammonia], acetone
to clean the key tops, just rub them with a rag, moistened with your favourite solvent, otherwise do the screwdriver/ruler/fingernail thing and pop them off, they will snap on, the space bar is the only difficult one.
for membrane keyboards, they pretty much don't neek cleaning, it's pretty hard to get crap between the membrane and the contacts, just rinse and dry in a warm place (on top of the hot water cylinder is good)
-- kai
can anyone out there in net.land comment on how ogg compares to sony's ATRAC compression, used on MiniDiscs and now in their MemoryStick audio products? I've seen repeatedly that atrac sounds better than an mp3 at the same bitrate, but things like this are pretty hard to quantify... if there are any refs to ogg vs atrac, i'd love to see them. -- kai
Well, look no further than the latest offering from Sony, the PlayStation2... The GS and EE are capable of providing hardware accelerated NURBS, and are getting put to very good use in new titles...