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  1. Re:The implied complaint on More on DVD-Audio and SACD · · Score: 1

    Computer DVD-Rom drives can read DVD-Audio discs just fine. The only thing that is required is the hardware to decode the MLP stream from the disc. It's encrypted and compressed. I think Creative announced a soundcard with decoding capability recently. I'm not sure of the rights restrictions though.

    SACD on the other hand isn't so lucky. There is no consumer drive currently available.

    -tj

  2. Article FUD on More on DVD-Audio and SACD · · Score: 5, Informative

    There is a bit of FUD in that article and some of the posts here. Here are some details that I know of for each format.

    SACD:
    1. Each SACD MUST include at least a Stereo SACD section. The multichannel and CD (Redbook) parts are optional.
    2. An SACD with a CD layer is completely backwards compatible.
    3. Not all current SACD's include the CD layer. The reasons for this are most likely due to manufacturing capacity. Sony currently has two pressing plants in Japan that just came online with Hybrid SACD pressing capability, so expect this to change.
    4. Nothing prevents you from recording off of the analog outputs or ripping the CD layer (if it exists).
    5. More manufacturers than Sony are producing SACD equipment. There are many new universal players (DVD, DVD-A, SACD, CD, VCD, etc) from the likes of Onkyo, Pioneer, Apex, and Yamaha either on the market now or in the works.
    6. SACD uses whats called "Direct Stream Digital" (DSD) as it's recording process. DSD is a 1bit system with a sampling rate of over 2 million samples a second.
    7. No TV is required to access the disk, track access is provided in a CD like fashion.
    8. All SACD's include text titles on the disc for track, artist, and album information.

    DVD-Audio:
    1. DVD-Audio is backwards compatible with DVD players. However, the backwards compatibility is achieved by putting a lower resolution Dolby Digital and/or DTS version in the VIDEO_TS part of the DVD.
    2. The actualy DVD-A material resides in a separate directory on a DVD called AUDIO_TS
    3. DVD-Audio does not have to include a stereo track. IMHO this is a bad thing.
    4. Linear PCM is the technology behind DVD-Audio. Max sample rates are 24bit/96khz for 5.1 and 24bit/192khz for stereo.
    5. LPCM is compressed and encrypted with MLP (Meridian Lossless Packaging). The compression is obviously lossless.
    6. Dolby Digital and DTS are lossy encoding methods akin to the beloved MP3.
    7. Some labels are including a "Macrovision Like" copy protection scheme on the DVD-A tracks.
    8. You can rip the DD or DTS side, but you cannot rip the MLP LPCM audio (yet). You may not even be able to record the analog audio if watermarking is included.
    9. The interface for a DVD-Audio disk may require a TV to navigate. There is no set structure allowing you to have easy access in a "CD Track" like nature. This is entirely up to the producer of the disk.

    Each format is a bit more expensive than current CD prices. Heck current CD prices are higher than they should be, but a new format should be expected to have higher prices initially.

    Personally I prefer the features of SACD, and I would love to see hybrid discs become the norm for all new releases as long as the price is equivalent.

    -tj

  3. Re:Hear about the plan to open source Xeon? on Weta Digital's Render Farm Upgrade · · Score: 1

    ...And the CPU after that is going to be called the PEON!

    *smack* don't be a moron.

    -tj

  4. Re:Glorified Re-boot and quite tedious on How Well Does Windows Cluster? · · Score: 1

    A common misconception is the difference between 'fault-tolerant' and 'high-availability'. MSCS clusters are 'high-availability' clusters, meaning that there wont necessarily be a seamless switch but it will be backup within minutes, thus minimizing downtime. Fault-tolerant is just the opposite, meaning when something fails you don't necessarily notice (RAID is an example of this).

    -Aaron

  5. Re:M$ Clustering vs Beowolf clustering... on How Well Does Windows Cluster? · · Score: 1

    Actually, with Win2k server you can't do any MS clustering at all... With the exception of the Network Load Balancing add-on that you can only use on win2k server with site server (otherwise it's not even in win2k server). With Win2k Adv you can choose between either NLB clusters or the active/passive MSCS (Wolfpack). With MSCS it is a two node cluster, and NLB 'scales' up to (I think) 32 nodes. With Datacenter MSCS goes up to 4 nodes.

    Either way, neither of these are computational clusters--which is what the poster was inquiring about.

    Oh, and you're definition of Active/Passive is a little off for wolfpack nodes as well. Active refers to the machine the application is currently on and passive is the backup node. You can however have multiple 'applications' on a wolfpack cluster and have each node be active for a different application and passive for the other.

    -aaron

  6. It's the applications, not the box. on HA Metrics on Non-clustered Systems? · · Score: 1

    In the real world where uptime of a service matters it's not about the availability of the box but rather the application. You can achieve 5x9's of uptime on an application even with windows machines and proper management. This is why HA clusters are so important, and anyone who has a business critical application knows this.

    If you have a service that absolutely has to be up one machine isn't the answer...but of course it will cost you.

    -aaron

  7. Got lots of these... on Buying Sun Sparcs for Personal Use? · · Score: 1

    I've got a 4 processor sparcstation 10 (100Mhz ross modules), a couple of Sparc Classics, and an Ultra 5. For someone just starting out I recommend either an Ultra 1 / 2 or an Ultra 5 / 10. If you get one of these boxen make sure it has a built in CD-Rom drive (ultra 5 / 10 shouldn't be a problem), because you need to have something that has 512-byte sector capability otherwise it wont boot the solaris 8 install CD.

    Don't worry about getting a head (graphics card, keyboard & mouse), you can use a serial terminal off of the first serial port. However, if you get an Ultra 5 / 10 making this work will be easier, you can simply use a regular PC monitor as long as it's multi-sync (ie Sony or NEC).

    -Aaron

  8. Re:My Experience on Buying Sun Sparcs for Personal Use? · · Score: 1

    Actually, the sparcstation 10 uses a 50-pin SCSI drive and not an SCA interface. It does have some special mounting hardware, but unless you're moving the box around you can set the two drives in there without too much problem, or just buy an external case for them.

    The sparcstation 5 and sparcstation 20 use SCA drives, but again these are pretty easy to find they're used in almost any server now-a-days. You'll again need to get ahold of the trays if your machine doesn't come with one.

    I've got a gaggle of sparc hardware here. If you can grab an ultra 5 off of ebay, they're running for around $400 dollars now-a-days and make good first time solaris boxen.

  9. Half mile run, non line of sight through walls? on Cheap Wireless 802.11b Bridging · · Score: 1

    I've been looking into putting wireless between my friends apartment and mine. We live in the same apartment complex and are about a half mile away. But in between us is several walls and a bunch of trees. Is there a high gain antenna I could slap on one of these puppies that would burn through something like that?

  10. Re:It makes me think.... on IBM's First Computer · · Score: 1

    Actually 1Ghz is 1,000,000,000Hz, 1Mhz is 1,000,000Hz

  11. What about Solaris x86? on Sun, or Linux 2.4.x As An NFS Server? · · Score: 2

    Here is a partial suggestion and question.

    What about Solaris x86? I know BSD has been mentioned, which has excellent NFS support, and uses PeeCee hardware. But since you say it is a mostly sun network, sol x86 could at least keep you consistant OS wise.

    My question is, has anyone used x86 solaris in this situation? It seems that it may be a good option, allowing you to use PeeCee hardware, use a similar OS to your clients, and save some money on hardware. Last I knew x86 Sol had pretty decent raid controller support but I can't attest to that now.

    -Aaron

  12. Re:Question about Apple's MPEG-2 CODEC on A Basket Full of Apple News · · Score: 1

    I think his comment was a piece of sarcasm... It sure sounds like a rave to me...

    -Aaron

  13. Re:Unfortunately... on She Was Fired, But Never Told · · Score: 1
    Corruption in small non-ipo dotcoms??? NO WAY! I don't believe you... Wait I do. I work for just such a beast (furniturefind.com. Somedays the techies who work for the company are one inch from walking out and writing a book on it, actually most of the days... The worse part is the blatant stupidity of management, when the lot of us started at the company around two years ago it was a very awesome dream. Finally, something we could make our own and be proud of, HA! That went down the toilet as soon as management got the brilliant idea to employ "viral marketing" (read: spam, and search-engine spam..) and over value the hell out of the company and focus on only an IPO (which never happened of course)... This alongside with the HUGE amount of money they spent on advertising that only drove minor traffic to the website at best... For a great example of the department in question's worthless tactics just go to www.farts.com and close the browser after it loads... Notice the homepage that comes up? Yeah, exactly... They were sooooo proud of basically doubling our traffic one day and come to find out it was gimics like this across many websites. Need I even say that sales didn't increase AT ALL that day?

    I hate them, I hope they die... Just waiting for the next career move to solidify.

    -heysoose

  14. Re:Construction techniques on Pioneer 6 -- Still Alive At 35 · · Score: 1

    Hey, umm, doesn't it take oxygen to oxidize??? "OH MY GOD, WE'VE HIT AN OXYGEN CLOUD... WERE GOING TO RUST..."

    But this is an excellent display of craftmanship, there are many other factors besides oxygen that should/could/will eventually make this thing as useful as a toaster.

    My question is, what did it say? I imagine it's something like "H..E....Lp...MEe. steeeeer tworads ssuuuun......"

    -Aaron

  15. Lucas... Digital.... How 'bout DVD's????? on Digital Movies and The Big Screen · · Score: 1

    Lucas may be doing something 'revolutionary' or 'standard changing' by filming Episode II on digital equipment but his lack of effort to move Starwars onto DVD has me feeling a little queasy. His excuses so far have been that he simply doesn't have time for the effort of producing a DVD... My question then is this, why doesn't he take the same effort that has been put into releasing the countless VHS re-releases of StarWars into releasing a DVD set? I don't understand I guess...

    -Aaron

  16. Re:You'll hate me for it but I like sendmail on Which MTA Do You Recommend? · · Score: 1

    I just installed 8.11 from scratch myself, you *MUST* start from scratch. Do yourself a favor from the beginning use m4 and ditch the distro's sendmail (if any). But my experience with sendmail has been much more pleasant on the boxes where I've compiled it myself.

    -Aaron

  17. Re:Why not just run Solaris on Red Hat Abandons Sparc · · Score: 1

    I own tons of sparc hardware and on my 32bit sparc systems I tend to run Linux because it's easier to maintain and usually faster than solaris. But on my Ultra 5 I run Solaris, because otherwise it will be a really expensive Linux box and a PC would be a better option. I bought the ultra to run Solaris. Ultra's == Solaris, Others == Linux

    It just works. And besides, you can make solaris do everything linux can with a little determination.

    -Aaron

  18. Re:No, it won't. on Sun's UltraSPARC III Processor Shipping · · Score: 1

    A USII 400Mhz? Which one? There are several different cache options... Is it a IIi or a II??

    It really depends...

    -Aaron

  19. Re:Enough speed for Windows 2000? on An Interesting Boot Log On Alpha · · Score: 1

    make -j 32

    Mmmm, alpha....

    A year ago I had the thought in my head that alpha would be the linux platform of choice. Kind of like how sparc is to solaris (as apposed to intel), this would help compaq develop a relationship much like sparc/solaris and SGI/Irix but I don't think that the alpha hardware has come down to near the price that it needs for this to happen. I would love to see Alpha become Linux's premier platform....

    -Aaron

  20. Re:One question: Why? on SuSE Announces Linux Version For SPARC · · Score: 1

    I have a Ultra 5 w/ a 270Mhz USIIi in it and I had linux on it for about one day. For usability Linux ran as usual but I can say w/ Seti Solaris 8 crunched packets about 4 hours quicker than linux. But this might not mean much because of compiler differences, then again it may.

  21. Re:I wonder when RedHat's turn is going to be on Endgame For SCO · · Score: 1

    You're a retard...

    SCO isn't a linux company, they are a commercial unix vendor... Get your head out of your ass 31337 boy....

    -Aaron

  22. Re:System speed. on Software Routers vs. Hardware Routers? · · Score: 1

    DUAL 800MHZ PIII???? If you have 4 Gigabit Ethernet links perhaps...(and then there is the PCI problem). A cisco 25xx can MORE than handle a T1/E1 and not even think twice.

  23. NDS = LDAP (sort of) on Linux Directory Services? · · Score: 1

    We've been looking at very much the same solution at my place of employment and from what I understand NDS (or rather e-directory) is an LDAP *compliant* directory system...That means if you have software that works with LDAP and not NDS you can make it work with NDS through LDAP, the inverse is also true I believe. Supposedly with the latest release a novell server is not needed for directory services AT ALL. Another benifit we liked was the ability to use the native administrative tools to the OS and have them reflected transparently in the Tree.

    -Aaron

  24. Re:High school? on Routers -vs- Switches? · · Score: 1

    My old high school just recently got a grant or something to have a cisco academy... It's in the middle of no where with and under 400 student count and their lab for this is 30 seats.. That means they expect 7.5% of the high school to participate in this class every semester???? They are on crack, when I was there wasn't 7.5% of the high school that *wanted* to take typing, let alone the one class on VB... I hope they get someone who knows what they are doing because to this day their network is wide open on the net without a decent firewall... I've printed warnings on their printers but I guess they just don't get it.

  25. Re:The term "Switch" is abused on Routers -vs- Switches? · · Score: 1

    I sooo agree... I've gotten into many a fight with cisco consultants about the theory behind switches... They are in fact Layer 2 (i.e. ethernet) routers and are even more so routers when you have a store and forward vs. a cut through switch. Sure it doesn't fit the tradiitional definition of router (Layer 3+, IP, IPX, etc) but functionally it does the same thing... Take our network here, there is a cisco 3548 acting as a core switch with 8 cisco 2924M-XL's cascaded off of it (2 segment etherchannel to each) when a workstation wants to talk to a server (located on the 3548 as well) the ethernet frame is "routed" from it's switch accross the etherchannel to the core switch. The clients switch "decided" that it needed to go accross the channel to reach such-and-such MAC address... That my friend is routing, and spanning-tree is a routing protocol :) Not in the traditional sense of course...

    -Aaron