Well, if they have probable cause to believe that crimes are being committed (existence of a chop shop parting out stolen cars), they can tell it to a judge and prosecutor and the judge will no doubt be happy to give a warrant authorizing tracking of the car.
I doubt a court order is required. I am sure most of the time the owner of the car will give permission for the cops to find the car. No warrent is needed to use the GPS data. A warrent may be needed to seach the property where the car GPS signal says it is.
If I had an onstar car and it was stolen, I would give permission to trace it in a heartbeat. Catch the guys red handed please and put them away!
What's worse, would EZ-Pass or On*Star (I have neither system - I'd rather bleed to death at the side of the road after an accident than lose my privacy 100% of the time) data obtained without a warrant now be admissible in court? I suspect that the cops might not even have to leave the comfort of their offices to attach the GPS bug if they play the game right.
If they want to be nasty, simply look for GPS units along a long deserted out in the middle of nowhere desert road and track distance verses time. Instant remote speeding tickets!
The judge said they should not use wholesale GPS data. OK, just narrow it down to just the cars that passed a license plate camera somewhere along the road. No need to collect wholesale data, just those traveling on this road late at night.
It is indeed, but any refusal by MS would be tantamount to playing into Apple's hands, because (a) they could use it to show national and EC legislators that their non-support of other DRM formats wasn't a matter of choice ("we tried, but nasty old MS wouldn't let us"), and (b) it would divert legal attention away from Apple and towards Microsoft, who the EC has already been bashing for anti-competitive behaviour.
I don't think MS is permitted to enable converting formats to export into iTunes. MS format supports subscriptions. iTunes does not. Converting and making it drag and drop will break the you don't continue to subscribe, your tunes break. On this point, MS won't or can't permit converting to another format that does not support the subscription model and they may argue that in court and blame Apple for not putting it in their hardware.
Maybe in this mess MS and Apple can find a cross license deal where Plays for Sure hardware will work with iTunes and iPods will work with Windows Media Player subscriptions.
Since Apple has the aces in this hand, I doubt they can reach an agreement.
I thus reckon that an easy way around Apple's mounting European problems would be for them to license Windows Media DRM for their iTunes program only so that people could drag files on to it just as they can with non-DRM Windows Media now, and have them converted to FairPlay-encoded AAC
Do you think MS would permit changing DRM formats. This is a format war. If MS would license the format to Apple it would be required to be suported in the hardware so an Apple iPod would have to connect to a Windows PC and use the Windows DRM client Media Player. This is something Apple would not permit, so we are in a DRM format standoff.
(unless the school put out some dough--every OSS system I've used required some shady means of enabling mp3 playback)
Since money is not charged per copy of Linux, they do not include software that requires a payment to be made per copy. MP3 decoders and codecs require a payment. Detailes are here; http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/
Once you download a codec or decoder, getting it licensed is a problem.. They won't take your money. From the Q & A;
1) Do you license mp3, mp3PRO and mp3surround software to end users?
No. We license mp3/mp3PRO software and patents to developers and manufacturers of software applications and hardware devices.
They don't want to deal with retail, they want to deal with wholesale. The minimum annual payment is $15,000.
Translation: It seems that a large portion of software begins getting pirated by kids and it's much cheaper for us to do an education campaign than it is to plug up our court system with all the priacy lawsuits.
It may be easier to keep them off pirated software this way to keep them out of jail. This software from overseas has a legal liability. It's time to move on and mitigate the liability. It is one of the reasons I am using Ubuntu on my home built PC.
Honestly, I think anyone that considers that to be an acceptable state of "ease of use" for the hypothetical "someone" thats never used linux...is out of their mind. When thing work...they work great, but sometimes it just seems like the amount of effort required to GET things working is unacceptable.
I had just the oposite happen. I took a machine and converted over to Ubuntu. Everything worked without ever going online or locating a CD for a driver unlike a Windows install. Everything came up running without endless reboots. I even was able to connect to my HP printers on the lan on Hawking printservers without installing a single driver from CD/floppy/download.
The only thing that didn't work was my HP flatbed scanner was not recognised. I replaced it with a USB Cannon scanner. Again, no drivers or configuration needed. It was truly plug and play. No reboot was needed.
There some things not compatible with Vista or drivers are coming soon... The same is true for Linux.
Getting a machine up and running is only a small part. Keeping it running is a much bigger problem. I have problems on my wife's XP machine I have not been able to fix in almost a year. (most notably the flatbed scanner output has been hy-jacked by a photo editor which broke the photocopier. Hitting copy in the photocopier software launches the TWAIN interface, which launches the photo editor, which keeps the photocopier from getting the scan. Uninstalling the photo editor did not fix the problem.) I photcopy on the Linux machine now. The scanning options is much better than the Windows version ever was. I can even properly compensate and make good copies off canary paper. Gimp is better than any bundeled photo editor demo included on the XP machine.
I have noticed the Windows machine seems to fall apart and the Linux machine keeps on running properly.
but I think more thought needs to be given to what the knowledge/patience/experience level of the majority of computer users actually is, rather than projecting the "knowledge/patience/experience level" of your average linux user onto them.
My Ubuntu install is my second Linux install. I'm about as newbie as they come. It does pay to read up on it. In Windows the same is true, except there is less official documentation. You have had Windows long enough you are comfortable installing AV software, upgrading browsers, installing patches, and maybe even editing the registery to finish removal of a paticular nasty piece of adware.
but Linux has to get a helluva lot easier to use. I say the same thing regarding fixing Windows. I still sometimes get burned copying something to a USB drive or Network drive only to find later that I just made links instead of copying the files. Ever drag the my personal folders into a shared netowrk drive to reformat and rebuild a Windows machine gone bad, only to discover later that the copies of some of your files are just links to the originals which no longer exist? Easier is just what you are used to. In Linux, when I copy something, I get a copy, not a link.
I would guess from the problems you had with the monitor is it is possibly using an interface other than the 15 pin D-sub such as HDMI. Cutting edge is not always fully supported. Find out what is compatible. I ditched an incompatible flatbed scanner. Some manufactures are not Linux friendly.
Whereas with any player that does support DRM, only two out of those three would be incompatible...
This is why some contries are threatening single vendor player/store solutions to make their store and players play fair with competing players and sources of content.
You can't buy a player which will play iTunes tracks and Yahoo music's unlimited monthly subscription library.
you are not allowed to use the software you "upgraded".
Sometimes you just don't know if the restriction is technical in nature such as you are not allowed to copy iTunes tracks from one iPod to another, or you are not allowed to share copyrighted MP3's on Kazza. One is technological, the other is legal.
Sometimes when reading a restriction, the wrong assumption is made.
I have to pay the Gateway mafia their payola or download an illegal version of Windows and put my legal key in.
With DRM what you expect and what you get may not be the same. I recall seeing some discussion of the Legal XP key becomming invalidated in the Vista upgrade process.
A quick Google search brings up gems like "Vista will invalidate your XP key (so you won't be able to set up a dual-boot option nor will you be able to use that version of XP on another machine). Not only that, but if you ever uninstall Vista, you won't be able to fall back on your copy of XP anymore. Nice"
Not that I doubt your experience, but from mine, most of the "brand name" outfits were much more prone to the line-up-and-smile type of work as that's what sells prints to the extended family.
I was born in the 1950's so I have experianced the studios running photography like the diamond industry as a cartel. Even then, it paid to talk to individula photographers and review their portfolios, learn the personality, style of photography, and find out what equipment he uses.
It's like getting a custom pizza at Pizza Hut. Talk to the right guy and you may get a pizza art piece instead of just half peperoni, half Hawaiian. Ever get a smiley face pizza for a kids party?
Around Milwaukee, most of the independent photographers charge a flat rate for their time and hand you a DVD or two and the end of the event.
I found most of these offerings are one guy with one digital SLR, no studio work, limited creativity (Burger King assemply of the required traditional shots) & one or two umbrella lights. If you have large extended family present, you may want to look for someone who takes the time to do good lighting with background shadow elimination flash, key and several fill flash, & hair light. Some people just want snapshots, some want studio quality family photos. Hire what you need.
Review their work. I found the quality all over the map from 35mm shots with on camera flash, to full studio set-up. A photographer with a great personality can work wonders with crowd orginization for great shots with everyone happy. Don't go by price alone. It isn't worth it. Find a pro.
The Agency I work for filters and blocks.zip files, too. They have proven to contain harmful executables in past malware attacks, too.
I wasn't very clear.. We filter ALL attachments including zip files. Un-encrypted is deleted. Encrypted is held and can be requested if you were expecting it.
We know about the short note telling you how to use this password to decrypt the attached encrypted zip. It was a hack to get past filters. It is still a way to get past filters, but with the additional step of confirming your were expecting the zip attachment. An unexpected zip is not delivered.
I haven't heard much about it lately, but apparently it is *really* difficult to find a wedding photographer who will simply take his fee and turn over the digital files and/or negatives.
It is not that hard anymore. Lots of people are upset with the outdated model where everything from a studio has to be on paper and don't your dare reproduce it at all. Some photographers understand the need to post online and use digital slideshows and DVD's for distant relatives. Ask at the studio. You might get permission and be provided webshot resolution of photos you paid for to post online. If you want full resolution/negatives, you may have to go another route.
Don't bother going to a studio where the photographers are under contract and the studio owns the copyright (like Olan Studios). Put an ad online that you are needing to hire a photographers services and would like to review applicants works. Pick one you like from the applicants. You can also search some photographers portfolios online. Some do fantastic creative work and are proud to post samples online.
Do a contract for the work including the time, number of shots, number of prints and enlargements, quality standard (35mm/large format, digital SLR, etc) and full rights and posession of the negatives/digital files. There are a few good contract commercial photographers. Don't expect the same prices the studios charge. This will cost more, but it's worth it because you have the full rights to put the photos online for those who could not attend. If you like his work offer to recommend him to your friends. Word of mouth advertising is valuable.
Don't expect to pay $60/hour, get 300 great shots and only pay for a dozen prints and collect all the negatives and rights. Come prepared to pay for results of a once in a lifetime event. A good photographer will cost you. Choose one who has the experiance and can show you a great portfolio with good lighting, great focus, conposition, color balance, and can catch all the inlaws in a shot where nobody blinked. A single shot and moving on is not the photographer you want.
When you buy a package from a studio, you work with their contract. When you hire, they work with your contract.
I would have thought that businesses would be the first to learn. They are the ones who tend to be the most affected by situations like this, especially when hundreds or thousands of Windows-based computers on their internal networks become compromised. It costs them a lot of money to clean up those systems.
At my place of employment (100% MS shop) they have had too many of these kinds of problems. As a solution, all attachments are filtered and removed. It it was an attachment we were expecting, then we could apply to recieve the attachment unless it is an executable. To send an executable file (including MS documents) we are advised to send them as encrypted zip files.
I don't expect this exploit of the week to be much of an issue for us Monday morning except for a couple road warriers who may have gotten it from home.
Maybe the advitisers will get the idea most people don't want to watch re-runs several times during one program. Put out new stuff. That's how the superbowl ads get watched. Nobody buys a slot and runs an old ad. Nobody buys 15 slots and runs the same ad again and again. People skip ads because they are re-runs. They've seen them and are ready to get back to the content. The collateral damage is since most ads are re-runs, it is assumed most upcomming ads are also re-runs and are auto skipped.
It's like maybe a $20 bill got dumped in the trash by accident, but most people don't wast the time digging though bags of disposable diapers just to check. Stuff in the dump is assumed to be trash. Most programs have heaps of same old discarded advertisements (re-runs) not worth the time to dig through.
I'm not even going to watch the superbowl this year. I'll just catch the new ads online. They are always posted.
which included a much-needed iPod software upgrade and a complete restore of my iTunes library -- safely.
That is the core problem with DRM formats. They are designed to break when copied or moved. When it is required to relocate them, you are flying with no solid backups in case anything goes wrong.
For the time being, I's still sticking with MP3's simply because they can be backed up anywhere and restored to anything without fuss. The only downer is it locks me out of most online music stores as they are all incompatible with my data security and hardware. Almost all DVD players and many car stereos will play MP3 CD's. Almost all portable music players will play MP3's. Almost none of the online music stores sell MP3's. Something is wrong with this picture.
Where is all the good music in MP3 format for all my hardware? I know, archived on my hard drive...
The market is split between the Apple format and everything else which plays MP3's.
An iPod is a hard drive, as far as an operating system is concerned.
If that were true, you could just use any drag and drop interface. With DRM, it is much more than what it appears. When the Sync gets messed up, it can and does hose the iPod. This is not a simple format the hard drive and re-copy files back fix. The iPod has it's own OS. Messing that up screws up the ability to attach the iPod as an external USB drive.
I suspect the same is true for almost all other DRM media players in both flash and hard drive forms.
Five hours and a crash of iTunes during a song upload on a (spyware and virus free) XP system later the crashPod was stuck in an endless reboot cycle... no way to turn it off, no way to even get into diagnostics.
It looks like a good time to pick on DRM and computer Lock-in sync software. I picked up a Coby MP3 player. It attaches as a USB drive. It also has a card slot (SD). Since the player is only 512 meg, most of the time I transfer tunes and lectures to a card using the built in reader in the PC. It has the advantages of no need to carry cables and a PC crash doesn't kill the device.
Needless to say, it does not support DRM in any format so iTunes, Zune, and Plays for Sure are all incompatible with it. The advantage is I can add songs and lectures from work and home. There is no problems with single computer associations and authorizations. I can also transfer files off the device. These features were more important to me than an online store compatibility. A couple other nice features are the ability to record off the radio and mic. The resulting MP3 files can be saved to a computer. No special association software is required. It is compatible with any PC with a USB port including Mac, Linux and Windows.
Where were the MS team when they did a usability study? Have you seen the very long list of requirements just to use the online Zune store? It's a Rube Goldberg chain of complexity, any step which can break it. It's already broken on Vists. Got a Passport account?, got a Credit Card?, Have you bought Zune Points?, Are you using a Windows PC?,
I prefer ripping CD's and just dragging a few MP3's to where I want them.
and customers could corrupt their iPod unless they eject it from Windows using iTunes.
It's like ejecting a floppy on a Mac or *NIX except there is another layer of software that has to properly write to the device to close it. Windows has no idea that iTunes has not finished and using Windows to eject hardware will close the device without all the updates from iTunes. I suprised that is any diffrent from XP or 2K.
does anyone out there ever press that "safely remove hardware" thing anyway?
You may get by most of the time if you don't have any applications such as a file browser open and was writing files that might be cached and not written. For example having a bunch of MP3's on a flash drive and unplugging it is not a problem most of the time. If you were writing new files and updating some files, such as a spreadsheet, may corrupt it if you don't close the application and use the eject option. Cached data might not all get written.
I don't understand why this is just an issue with iTunes and Vista. Maybe iTunes hooks into Safely Remove Hardware, and closes out writes before letting Windows confirm it's safe to remove the device. This is probably what's broken in Vista.
This looks like a document about internal testing of Dr DOS, and it looks like they had good reasons to warn people who were about to run windows on Dr DOS (as in - the crashes you will experience are their product, not ours)
What it looks like and what was reality are not the same. Those who ran Windows on MS DOS had about the same number of crashes. A few brave souls continued past the warning to see just how bad it was and often report that the warning seems to be MS FUD. I personaly didn't try running Windows on DR-DOS as I already had legal copies of IBM PC DOS as well as MS DOS and didn't take the time to wipe the systems for an experiment. Later I did a little playing with DR DOS and found it was not bad. There were just about as many issues with the fact the 2 hidden system files had different filenames than anything else..
The diffrent file names were a barrier to most people wanting to change between IBM's adn MS'es DOS. Unless you wanted to rename two hidden system files, you could not SYS a hard drive over to the other system or upgrade using the other product. It required a full reformat. The barrier worked both ways.
I don't remember what DR-DOS used for hidden system filenames.
"We are engaged in a FUD campaign to let the press know about some of the bugs. We'll provide info a few bugs at a time to stretch it out."
It seems to have bitten them back hard. Whenever there is a major Windows breach, I mention it as the exploit of the week. Most people "get it". Some don't and ask me about it. I tell them that this exploit is this weeks exploit, then pull up Google and find last weeks, the weeks before, the weeks before... Then mention patch Tuesday. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_Tuesday Very seldom is Patch Tuesday a single patch event. It covers several exploits showing there is a patchable exploit about once a week.
From exhibit PX 851, a memo from bradsi to billg and steveb (among others) regarding alleged "bugs" in DR DOS as found by Microsoft commissioned NSTL:
I don't know MS'es release schedule, but I doubt they had enough serious bugs to do a bug of the week for an entire year. MS has had enough bugs to have the bug of the week for a decade.
Try reading what he wrote before being a total jag off.
(begin rant)Thanks Anonymous Coward for the toasty flame. I am a Technician. I am not a computer technician. Please check my profile. I am an ISCET certified journeyman level technician. (electronics) Thanks for not checking.(end rant)
Back to the networking thread... The grandparent who was having trouble networking stated Vista was more trouble than the other OS'es, 2 of which were Unix based. If you reply to his post with the possible solution, he might be able to use it. I don't run Vista, so the solution is useless to me.
What this means seems to be that gamers will have to abandon their investment in hardware and games
Not at all. It means that the days of a single computer doing it all are over. Your game machine will run Windows XP or 98SE. Your internet browsing machine will run OSX 10.5, or Linux, and your eye-candy word processor machine will run Vista.
Instead of hand me down computers, some people will upgrade and go multi-PC. I use Ubuntu, Windows 98, Windows 2000, & Windows XP. Each machine has it's own primary function. The XP machine has the most un-resolved problems to date.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, if they have probable cause to believe that crimes are being committed (existence of a chop shop parting out stolen cars), they can tell it to a judge and prosecutor and the judge will no doubt be happy to give a warrant authorizing tracking of the car.
I doubt a court order is required. I am sure most of the time the owner of the car will give permission for the cops to find the car. No warrent is needed to use the GPS data. A warrent may be needed to seach the property where the car GPS signal says it is.
If I had an onstar car and it was stolen, I would give permission to trace it in a heartbeat. Catch the guys red handed please and put them away!
What's worse, would EZ-Pass or On*Star (I have neither system - I'd rather bleed to death at the side of the road after an accident than lose my privacy 100% of the time) data obtained without a warrant now be admissible in court? I suspect that the cops might not even have to leave the comfort of their offices to attach the GPS bug if they play the game right.
If they want to be nasty, simply look for GPS units along a long deserted out in the middle of nowhere desert road and track distance verses time. Instant remote speeding tickets!
The judge said they should not use wholesale GPS data. OK, just narrow it down to just the cars that passed a license plate camera somewhere along the road. No need to collect wholesale data, just those traveling on this road late at night.
It is indeed, but any refusal by MS would be tantamount to playing into Apple's hands, because (a) they could use it to show national and EC legislators that their non-support of other DRM formats wasn't a matter of choice ("we tried, but nasty old MS wouldn't let us"), and (b) it would divert legal attention away from Apple and towards Microsoft, who the EC has already been bashing for anti-competitive behaviour.
I don't think MS is permitted to enable converting formats to export into iTunes. MS format supports subscriptions. iTunes does not. Converting and making it drag and drop will break the you don't continue to subscribe, your tunes break. On this point, MS won't or can't permit converting to another format that does not support the subscription model and they may argue that in court and blame Apple for not putting it in their hardware.
Maybe in this mess MS and Apple can find a cross license deal where Plays for Sure hardware will work with iTunes and iPods will work with Windows Media Player subscriptions.
Since Apple has the aces in this hand, I doubt they can reach an agreement.
I thus reckon that an easy way around Apple's mounting European problems would be for them to license Windows Media DRM for their iTunes program only so that people could drag files on to it just as they can with non-DRM Windows Media now, and have them converted to FairPlay-encoded AAC
Do you think MS would permit changing DRM formats. This is a format war. If MS would license the format to Apple it would be required to be suported in the hardware so an Apple iPod would have to connect to a Windows PC and use the Windows DRM client Media Player. This is something Apple would not permit, so we are in a DRM format standoff.
(unless the school put out some dough--every OSS system I've used required some shady means of enabling mp3 playback)
Since money is not charged per copy of Linux, they do not include software that requires a payment to be made per copy. MP3 decoders and codecs require a payment. Detailes are here;
http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/
Once you download a codec or decoder, getting it licensed is a problem.. They won't take your money. From the Q & A;
1) Do you license mp3, mp3PRO and mp3surround software to end users?
No. We license mp3/mp3PRO software and patents to developers and manufacturers of software applications and hardware devices.
They don't want to deal with retail, they want to deal with wholesale. The minimum annual payment is $15,000.
See the minimum royalties on the bottom of this page; http://www.mp3licensing.com/royalty/software.html
every OSS system I've used required some shady means of enabling mp3 playback
It's because they provide no way to properly license it. We've tried.
Translation: It seems that a large portion of software begins getting pirated by kids and it's much cheaper for us to do an education campaign than it is to plug up our court system with all the priacy lawsuits.
Seen any of the latest BSA advertisements lately. Maybe this is the reason they want to get kids of patented software.
http://swpat.ffii.org/gasnu/bsa/index.en.html
It may be easier to keep them off pirated software this way to keep them out of jail.
This software from overseas has a legal liability. It's time to move on and mitigate the liability. It is one of the reasons I am using Ubuntu on my home built PC.
Honestly, I think anyone that considers that to be an acceptable state of "ease of use" for the hypothetical "someone" thats never used linux...is out of their mind. When thing work...they work great, but sometimes it just seems like the amount of effort required to GET things working is unacceptable.
I had just the oposite happen. I took a machine and converted over to Ubuntu. Everything worked without ever going online or locating a CD for a driver unlike a Windows install. Everything came up running without endless reboots. I even was able to connect to my HP printers on the lan on Hawking printservers without installing a single driver from CD/floppy/download.
The only thing that didn't work was my HP flatbed scanner was not recognised. I replaced it with a USB Cannon scanner. Again, no drivers or configuration needed. It was truly plug and play. No reboot was needed.
There some things not compatible with Vista or drivers are coming soon... The same is true for Linux.
Getting a machine up and running is only a small part. Keeping it running is a much bigger problem. I have problems on my wife's XP machine I have not been able to fix in almost a year. (most notably the flatbed scanner output has been hy-jacked by a photo editor which broke the photocopier. Hitting copy in the photocopier software launches the TWAIN interface, which launches the photo editor, which keeps the photocopier from getting the scan. Uninstalling the photo editor did not fix the problem.) I photcopy on the Linux machine now. The scanning options is much better than the Windows version ever was. I can even properly compensate and make good copies off canary paper. Gimp is better than any bundeled photo editor demo included on the XP machine.
I have noticed the Windows machine seems to fall apart and the Linux machine keeps on running properly.
but I think more thought needs to be given to what the knowledge/patience/experience level of the majority of computer users actually is, rather than projecting the "knowledge/patience/experience level" of your average linux user onto them.
My Ubuntu install is my second Linux install. I'm about as newbie as they come. It does pay to read up on it. In Windows the same is true, except there is less official documentation. You have had Windows long enough you are comfortable installing AV software, upgrading browsers, installing patches, and maybe even editing the registery to finish removal of a paticular nasty piece of adware.
but Linux has to get a helluva lot easier to use.
I say the same thing regarding fixing Windows. I still sometimes get burned copying something to a USB drive or Network drive only to find later that I just made links instead of copying the files. Ever drag the my personal folders into a shared netowrk drive to reformat and rebuild a Windows machine gone bad, only to discover later that the copies of some of your files are just links to the originals which no longer exist?
Easier is just what you are used to. In Linux, when I copy something, I get a copy, not a link.
I would guess from the problems you had with the monitor is it is possibly using an interface other than the 15 pin D-sub such as HDMI. Cutting edge is not always fully supported. Find out what is compatible. I ditched an incompatible flatbed scanner. Some manufactures are not Linux friendly.
Whereas with any player that does support DRM, only two out of those three would be incompatible...
This is why some contries are threatening single vendor player/store solutions to make their store and players play fair with competing players and sources of content.
You can't buy a player which will play iTunes tracks and Yahoo music's unlimited monthly subscription library.
you are not allowed to use the software you "upgraded".
Sometimes you just don't know if the restriction is technical in nature such as you are not allowed to copy iTunes tracks from one iPod to another, or you are not allowed to share copyrighted MP3's on Kazza. One is technological, the other is legal.
Sometimes when reading a restriction, the wrong assumption is made.
I have to pay the Gateway mafia their payola or download an illegal version of Windows and put my legal key in.
s ta-lose-your-xp-key-232647.php
With DRM what you expect and what you get may not be the same. I recall seeing some discussion of the Legal XP key becomming invalidated in the Vista upgrade process.
A quick Google search brings up gems like "Vista will invalidate your XP key (so you won't be able to set up a dual-boot option nor will you be able to use that version of XP on another machine). Not only that, but if you ever uninstall Vista, you won't be able to fall back on your copy of XP anymore. Nice"
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/software/upgrade-to-vi
Single vendor copy protected software may not provide you the privilages you expected to recieve when you bought it.
Any questions?
Not that I doubt your experience, but from mine, most of the "brand name" outfits were much more prone to the line-up-and-smile type of work as that's what sells prints to the extended family.
I was born in the 1950's so I have experianced the studios running photography like the diamond industry as a cartel. Even then, it paid to talk to individula photographers and review their portfolios, learn the personality, style of photography, and find out what equipment he uses.
It's like getting a custom pizza at Pizza Hut. Talk to the right guy and you may get a pizza art piece instead of just half peperoni, half Hawaiian. Ever get a smiley face pizza for a kids party?
Around Milwaukee, most of the independent photographers charge a flat rate for their time and hand you a DVD or two and the end of the event.
I found most of these offerings are one guy with one digital SLR, no studio work, limited creativity (Burger King assemply of the required traditional shots) & one or two umbrella lights. If you have large extended family present, you may want to look for someone who takes the time to do good lighting with background shadow elimination flash, key and several fill flash, & hair light. Some people just want snapshots, some want studio quality family photos. Hire what you need.
Review their work. I found the quality all over the map from 35mm shots with on camera flash, to full studio set-up. A photographer with a great personality can work wonders with crowd orginization for great shots with everyone happy. Don't go by price alone. It isn't worth it. Find a pro.
The Agency I work for filters and blocks .zip files, too. They have proven to contain harmful executables in past malware attacks, too.
I wasn't very clear.. We filter ALL attachments including zip files. Un-encrypted is deleted. Encrypted is held and can be requested if you were expecting it.
We know about the short note telling you how to use this password to decrypt the attached encrypted zip. It was a hack to get past filters. It is still a way to get past filters, but with the additional step of confirming your were expecting the zip attachment. An unexpected zip is not delivered.
I haven't heard much about it lately, but apparently it is *really* difficult to find a wedding photographer who will simply take his fee and turn over the digital files and/or negatives.
It is not that hard anymore. Lots of people are upset with the outdated model where everything from a studio has to be on paper and don't your dare reproduce it at all. Some photographers understand the need to post online and use digital slideshows and DVD's for distant relatives. Ask at the studio. You might get permission and be provided webshot resolution of photos you paid for to post online. If you want full resolution/negatives, you may have to go another route.
Don't bother going to a studio where the photographers are under contract and the studio owns the copyright (like Olan Studios). Put an ad online that you are needing to hire a photographers services and would like to review applicants works. Pick one you like from the applicants. You can also search some photographers portfolios online. Some do fantastic creative work and are proud to post samples online.
Do a contract for the work including the time, number of shots, number of prints and enlargements, quality standard (35mm/large format, digital SLR, etc) and full rights and posession of the negatives/digital files. There are a few good contract commercial photographers. Don't expect the same prices the studios charge. This will cost more, but it's worth it because you have the full rights to put the photos online for those who could not attend. If you like his work offer to recommend him to your friends. Word of mouth advertising is valuable.
Don't expect to pay $60/hour, get 300 great shots and only pay for a dozen prints and collect all the negatives and rights. Come prepared to pay for results of a once in a lifetime event. A good photographer will cost you. Choose one who has the experiance and can show you a great portfolio with good lighting, great focus, conposition, color balance, and can catch all the inlaws in a shot where nobody blinked. A single shot and moving on is not the photographer you want.
When you buy a package from a studio, you work with their contract. When you hire, they work with your contract.
I would have thought that businesses would be the first to learn. They are the ones who tend to be the most affected by situations like this, especially when hundreds or thousands of Windows-based computers on their internal networks become compromised. It costs them a lot of money to clean up those systems.
At my place of employment (100% MS shop) they have had too many of these kinds of problems. As a solution, all attachments are filtered and removed. It it was an attachment we were expecting, then we could apply to recieve the attachment unless it is an executable. To send an executable file (including MS documents) we are advised to send them as encrypted zip files.
I don't expect this exploit of the week to be much of an issue for us Monday morning except for a couple road warriers who may have gotten it from home.
Maybe the advitisers will get the idea most people don't want to watch re-runs several times during one program. Put out new stuff. That's how the superbowl ads get watched. Nobody buys a slot and runs an old ad. Nobody buys 15 slots and runs the same ad again and again. People skip ads because they are re-runs. They've seen them and are ready to get back to the content. The collateral damage is since most ads are re-runs, it is assumed most upcomming ads are also re-runs and are auto skipped.
It's like maybe a $20 bill got dumped in the trash by accident, but most people don't wast the time digging though bags of disposable diapers just to check. Stuff in the dump is assumed to be trash. Most programs have heaps of same old discarded advertisements (re-runs) not worth the time to dig through.
I'm not even going to watch the superbowl this year. I'll just catch the new ads online. They are always posted.
which included a much-needed iPod software upgrade and a complete restore of my iTunes library -- safely.
That is the core problem with DRM formats. They are designed to break when copied or moved. When it is required to relocate them, you are flying with no solid backups in case anything goes wrong.
For the time being, I's still sticking with MP3's simply because they can be backed up anywhere and restored to anything without fuss. The only downer is it locks me out of most online music stores as they are all incompatible with my data security and hardware. Almost all DVD players and many car stereos will play MP3 CD's. Almost all portable music players will play MP3's. Almost none of the online music stores sell MP3's. Something is wrong with this picture.
Where is all the good music in MP3 format for all my hardware? I know, archived on my hard drive...
The market is split between the Apple format and everything else which plays MP3's.
An iPod is a hard drive, as far as an operating system is concerned.
If that were true, you could just use any drag and drop interface. With DRM, it is much more than what it appears. When the Sync gets messed up, it can and does hose the iPod. This is not a simple format the hard drive and re-copy files back fix. The iPod has it's own OS. Messing that up screws up the ability to attach the iPod as an external USB drive.
I suspect the same is true for almost all other DRM media players in both flash and hard drive forms.
Five hours and a crash of iTunes during a song upload on a (spyware and virus free) XP system later the crashPod was stuck in an endless reboot cycle ... no way to turn it off, no way to even get into diagnostics .
It looks like a good time to pick on DRM and computer Lock-in sync software. I picked up a Coby MP3 player. It attaches as a USB drive. It also has a card slot (SD). Since the player is only 512 meg, most of the time I transfer tunes and lectures to a card using the built in reader in the PC. It has the advantages of no need to carry cables and a PC crash doesn't kill the device.
Needless to say, it does not support DRM in any format so iTunes, Zune, and Plays for Sure are all incompatible with it. The advantage is I can add songs and lectures from work and home. There is no problems with single computer associations and authorizations. I can also transfer files off the device. These features were more important to me than an online store compatibility. A couple other nice features are the ability to record off the radio and mic. The resulting MP3 files can be saved to a computer. No special association software is required. It is compatible with any PC with a USB port including Mac, Linux and Windows.
Where were the MS team when they did a usability study? Have you seen the very long list of requirements just to use the online Zune store? It's a Rube Goldberg chain of complexity, any step which can break it. It's already broken on Vists. Got a Passport account?, got a Credit Card?, Have you bought Zune Points?, Are you using a Windows PC?,
I prefer ripping CD's and just dragging a few MP3's to where I want them.
and customers could corrupt their iPod unless they eject it from Windows using iTunes.
It's like ejecting a floppy on a Mac or *NIX except there is another layer of software that has to properly write to the device to close it. Windows has no idea that iTunes has not finished and using Windows to eject hardware will close the device without all the updates from iTunes. I suprised that is any diffrent from XP or 2K.
does anyone out there ever press that "safely remove hardware" thing anyway?
You may get by most of the time if you don't have any applications such as a file browser open and was writing files that might be cached and not written. For example having a bunch of MP3's on a flash drive and unplugging it is not a problem most of the time. If you were writing new files and updating some files, such as a spreadsheet, may corrupt it if you don't close the application and use the eject option. Cached data might not all get written.
I don't understand why this is just an issue with iTunes and Vista. Maybe iTunes hooks into Safely Remove Hardware, and closes out writes before letting Windows confirm it's safe to remove the device. This is probably what's broken in Vista.
This looks like a document about internal testing of Dr DOS, and it looks like they had good reasons to warn people who were about to run windows on Dr DOS (as in - the crashes you will experience are their product, not ours)
What it looks like and what was reality are not the same. Those who ran Windows on MS DOS had about the same number of crashes. A few brave souls continued past the warning to see just how bad it was and often report that the warning seems to be MS FUD. I personaly didn't try running Windows on DR-DOS as I already had legal copies of IBM PC DOS as well as MS DOS and didn't take the time to wipe the systems for an experiment. Later I did a little playing with DR DOS and found it was not bad. There were just about as many issues with the fact the 2 hidden system files had different filenames than anything else..
The diffrent file names were a barrier to most people wanting to change between IBM's adn MS'es DOS. Unless you wanted to rename two hidden system files, you could not SYS a hard drive over to the other system or upgrade using the other product. It required a full reformat. The barrier worked both ways.
I don't remember what DR-DOS used for hidden system filenames.
"We are engaged in a FUD campaign to let the press know about some of the bugs. We'll provide info a few bugs at a time to stretch it out."
It seems to have bitten them back hard. Whenever there is a major Windows breach, I mention it as the exploit of the week. Most people "get it". Some don't and ask me about it. I tell them that this exploit is this weeks exploit, then pull up Google and find last weeks, the weeks before, the weeks before... Then mention patch Tuesday.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patch_Tuesday
Very seldom is Patch Tuesday a single patch event. It covers several exploits showing there is a patchable exploit about once a week.
From exhibit PX 851, a memo from bradsi to billg and steveb (among others) regarding alleged "bugs" in DR DOS as found by Microsoft commissioned NSTL:
I don't know MS'es release schedule, but I doubt they had enough serious bugs to do a bug of the week for an entire year. MS has had enough bugs to have the bug of the week for a decade.
Technician Huh?
Try reading what he wrote before being a total jag off.
(begin rant)Thanks Anonymous Coward for the toasty flame. I am a Technician. I am not a computer technician. Please check my profile. I am an ISCET certified journeyman level technician. (electronics) Thanks for not checking.(end rant)
Back to the networking thread... The grandparent who was having trouble networking stated Vista was more trouble than the other OS'es, 2 of which were Unix based. If you reply to his post with the possible solution, he might be able to use it. I don't run Vista, so the solution is useless to me.
I never had this much trouble with basic networking under SuSE, Ubuntu, or XP
Look up the history of the TCP/IP stack. You should have very little trouble using TCP/IP on any *NIX box unless you know nothing about TCP/IP.
Maybe I'm jumping to conclusions.. Are you defining basic networking as NetBios or Appletalk instead of TCP/IP?
What this means seems to be that gamers will have to abandon their investment in hardware and games
Not at all. It means that the days of a single computer doing it all are over. Your game machine will run Windows XP or 98SE. Your internet browsing machine will run OSX 10.5, or Linux, and your eye-candy word processor machine will run Vista.
Instead of hand me down computers, some people will upgrade and go multi-PC. I use Ubuntu, Windows 98, Windows 2000, & Windows XP. Each machine has it's own primary function. The XP machine has the most un-resolved problems to date.