I still need to own a computer, have Internet access, and pay for the electricity to hear it.
On the other hand we are off to a fantastic start. The software to do pro level recording is free. The hardware interfaces to do high quality multi-track recording are down in price. The Behringer U-Control series is quality at a bargain basement price if you only need CD or 48KHZ 16 bit quality.
For starters, I recommend Ubuntu Studio. It is based on the Real Time kernel for low latency capture with no buffer over/under runs (when set up properly) a good USB capture board. M-Audio USB and PCI stuff work well. Avoid firewire on Ubuntu at this time. It still has issues. For software use either Audacity directly with the hardware or use Ardour GTK2 with Jack. Ardor is a little harder to get going with Jack, but the patch bay for effects can't be beat. Industry standard 24 bit 48KHZ sample rates is directly supported as well as CD standard 16 bit 44.1KHZ and 32bit floating point 96KHZ for serious mastering.
Depending on your choice of hardware, recording masters at 2-8 tracks isn't difficult. (I have both 2 channel 16 bit 48KHZ, and 4 channel recording hardware with support up to 96 KHZ samples in true 24 bit glory.) Getting a drum 4 track recording is easy ready for post production EQ and mix-down. After the drum track is down and edited adding compression, limiting and EQ, adding the lead and bass guitar is next, followed by lead and backup vocals. Then the vocals are ready for stereo FX on another track and stereo guitar FX on another track then final post production. Audacity handles 4 drum tracks, 2 guitar tracks 2 stereo guitar FX tracks and 4 stereo vocal FX tracks just fine. It's fun to watch playback of all 18 tracks and have control over each while you tweak it for 2 track mix-down for the master tape at 48KHZ 24 bit and master CD at 44.1KHZ 16 bit. Real-time low latency playback of the drum and guitar tracks is needed for adding the vocals. Sequenced or real keyboard is optional. Vista is not suited for this.
What to avoid...
1 Windows Vista. It is not real-time. To get it to work requires large buffers placing a high latency on your capture. This makes recording a track while playing a track (adding the vocal to the background track) almost impossible without lots of post production to time sync the tracks.
2 Anything SoundBlaster. SB compatibility is another name for re sample. They have no direct capture at 24bit 44.1, 48, and 96KHZ. They are OK for VOIP telephone, podcasting, and speech recording, but will mangle serious music mastering. Your software may chose other same/bit rates, but remember, it is re-sampled, not captured at that rate.
What to get.. Pro sound mixer. Some have the audio capture board built-in. Remember the limitations on fire wire. They are OK on Windows XP. Audacity is free and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Some fire ware mixers have 8 track capture! Awesome.. But it is Windows only at this time.
Ardour if fantastic if you want to step up. You have to get jack working to use it. It has a much steeper learning curve to route all the patch cords and you can overload the processor and get glitches. This is for advanced users with hot CPU's.
So if you have a laptop with a USB port, a USB capture device, and a source of quality sound such as a mixing board or guitar amp with line out, you are ready to make CD quality recordings.
it seems that this is the cost of production, not the cost to the consumer. If we are selling it a buck a gallon from the pump after the inclusion of taxes, then I am interested. Until then, please use my corn for good uses such as the syrup in my Mt. Dew like God intended.
From the article it looks like the cost of conversion, not the cost of materials. They mentioned 2 bales of hay conversion to 5 gallons of fuel. Priced midwest hay lately?
Using an online calculator for Idaho alfalfa hay, I get "Average price for Idaho alfalfa hay is $5.5 per Small Square Bale." That's over $10 for the hay to make 5 gallons. It doesn't come to $1.00/gal in my math.
But seriously, this is good news! It is always good news (for law-abiding people) when crooks start feeding off each other.
I read an even better possibility into this. What if the kit was released by VISA/Master card, Discover, and American Express. They would have a front line into shutting down stolen card numbers, canceling cards and getting great data including IP addresses. Working with merchants, they could follow the canceled sales for a great bust of the ring. Brilliant if true.
I use it daily, not just for email and presentations but I actually write code on it.
I'm glad you changed the defaults. Out of the box, Vista is unsuitable for presentations. We found that out the hard way, We were doing a presentation using the brand new laptop in the field. There was no internet connection. We used a projector as the second monitor (Presentation mode/dual monitor). About 20 minutes into the presentation while playing a DVD, the movie playback stopped and the player minimised leaving a blank desktop. WTF???? We got up and checked the laptop screen for errors. There is an update for Acrobat Reader. It was a prompt to check for updates!
Since you do presentations, I can only assume you turned UAC prompts off as they are incompatible with live presentations.
Annoying one user is a bother. Shutting down the presentation is reason to use something else reliable for the task.
Speed isn't the only problem. The default configuration is unsuitable for presentations and live DAW recording.
Other software provides multitrack latency in the 1-3 mS range. Vista requires a huge buffer with no guarantee of under/over run glitches and low jitter. Lots of memory may provide a better buffer but at the cost of latency. A 500 mS buffer is OK for simple recording, but it is totaly unsuitable for layering in another track. (Playing background track while recording lead or vocal tracks)
"While the software may function adequately with onboard soundcards for basic editing and production, better fidelity and greatly enhanced multitrack performance will accompany the use of one of the large number of boxes or cards that are made specifically to handle audio for DAW software. These devices generally add monitoring and mixing software along with multiple digital or analog inputs and outputs. They can communicate with the computer and software via the internal protocols in the Mac or PC OS, or may, as long as the software is compliant, work with another Steinberg-developed open, cross-platform protocol called ASIO. ASIO can enhance the communication between your software and I/O hardware, and some hardware and software manufacturers are now advertising "near zero latency monitoring" using ASIO."
Vist and AISO is buggy. http://www.bjorn3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19107 "So, I switched over the the AISO Multimedia Driver and that's when the latency kicked in. If I hit a key on my MIDI the delay was almost a full five seconds before the not would sound off." (Vista Home)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_stream_input_output "ASIO bypasses the normal audio path from the user application through layers of intermediary Windows operating system software, so that the application connects directly to the soundcard hardware."
MS doesn't like it when you have direct access to unprotected audio streams..
"Sonars WDM/KS connects close to the Kernal layer but doesn't entirely bypass the WDM "Audio stack" while ASIO shouldn't go near it at all. It remains to be seen if the Vista that's released will prevent special drivers like ASIO, but since Steinberg have now gone to the trouble of releasing a 64bit ASIO spec, I should think Vista will be business as usual for most of us. However, if the "audio stack" has been reworked, I hope someone from Cakewalk can say if WDM/KS will still be available under Vista. It will still be needed to bypass windows sound with whatever the normal Vista driver is."
It looks like they are giving free software and support
What's very funny is Microsoft had a 10 question quiz in an ad here on slashdot. The quiz was to "test your knowledge of software licensing". For grins, I took the test. It will not let you go got the next question (training maze) until you got the current question correct. If they just scored it, I would have done poorly as I chose what a consumer friendly answer should be. Taking the quiz fully convinced me that with GNU style licenses out there, the MS license will lose.
For example, you have a computer with an OEM Windows install. It dies. Can you reinstall the software on another computer? The answer is no. The license is only for the dead computer and is not transferable. Just how does that stack up against my other software which includes the permission to install it on any and all computers I own. Getting me to buy their software is going to be tough. With Open Office, everyone has the same version. With MS Office, I have a machine with Office 97. The daughter has the Office 2003, and the wife's new Vista laptop has the new copy provided for the cost of the media through my employer. It expires when I lose my job or retire. Compare licenses again. One copy on one machine or a site license for all the machines in my house.. Easy choice.. We all have a copy of the up to date Open Office. It supports ODF out of the box, not as a plug-in.
Schools who have to deal with donated machines and per seat licenses have the BSA to fear. Schools who use OSS software do not have this legal liability. MS will either have to blanket change their license or continue to find their market erode.
My wife has [Vista] on her new laptop. It replaced her Windows ME laptop.
Now THAT'S bad karma!
That's skipping a generation or two instead of buying every new version from Redmond that comes out. It ran Office 97 for her homework just fine, connected to the LAN, and printers, and such just fine. We just knew it was not an internet media machine. We surfed with something safer and kept it behind NAT.
Did I mention I updated my laptop to Ubuntu? Does that help the Karma? I put Ubuntu Studio on my Core 2 Duo tm. machine as an A/V workstation. The wife was locked into a propritory Office Suite. I didn't spend the money on Codeweavers Crossover Office. We just used what we had as it worked.
Ever thought about buying an XP license, repartitioning the harddrive of the laptop and installing XP? That's a lot cheaper than buying a new Laptop. Did the same with my dad's new office machine...
I thought about it. The thought of paying for two copies of Windows for one laptop quickly changed my mind. I'd reather resell the laptop intact to raise the funds for the other laptop with only one Windows License.
Microsoft says they learned from their mistakes, and have been deconstructing Windows to remove bloat, and make the whole thing run faster.
They need to hurry on that one. People are discovering the alternatives. Instead of Vista, I moved to Ubuntu. In Ubuntu, I got hooked on the Digital Audio Workstation. From there I learned Linux has a real-time kernal if you want it. It can come pre-configured as Ubuntu Studio. For multi-track recording with low latency, it rocks. I have since found serious audio capture on Vista is highly discouraged. Windows 98SE, NT, or XP are recommended as Vista is way too far from realtime for quality recording. Large buffers mean high latency. This is bad for multi-track. Timing problems cause large jitter. Non-realtime kernel means buffer over and under runs.
Vista can play DRM content with a protected playback path. If you want to do your own creation, use something else.
Many audio interface manufactures simply say drivers for Vista are comming. I think they are waiting for Microsoft to fix the kernal so drivers have a chance of working.
Vista was a total bomb. There is no denying it at all.
I agree. My wife has it on her new laptop. It replaced her Windows ME laptop. She seldom uses it. She only uses it because 1 It's a laptop and portable, 2 It has a DVD writer in it... The rest of the time, she uses the desktop machine instead. Now if I can find a cheap XP laptop with a DVD writer, she will be happy as a clam.
Why don't the igniters (which are sort of like a car spark plug, but the size of a beer bottle) crash the avionics when they're turned on?
Put your cell phone inside a metal coffee can and type a reply. Now take the phone out of the metal can and put it inside the computer case next to the memory. Don't bother replying. You will be busy rebooting.
Antennas outside the metal can are not the same as antennas inside the can with the electronics.
Apparently it's simply more important to protect ??AA profits than it is to have an open and freethinking educational system. Signs of this are all over the place, from both parties. Evolution, anyone? Anyone wonder how soon teaching that the universe is older than 6000 years will be challenged, or Galileo will rejoin the ranks of heretics?
Who cares? The next generation won't need a college education unless they want to move to a technology leader country such as Japan or China. The US will simply move down the ladder to 3rd world status. When the out of work Americans can't afford iPods and high speed internet anymore, the problem will go away. (end rant) It is important to have universities teach. This attack on education (it isn't support in any way) is outside the scope of what a university is all about. I hope this doesn't get traction and stuff that helps higher learning instead of attacking it gets traction.
If the steering software of the Prius has a hidden bug, the result will probably be a completely blocked car, in a sudden way.
This is highly unlikely simply because the steering is not fly by wire. The power steering is simply power assist just like in a conventional car. The assist is a linear electric motor instead of a hydraulic system. As such, it's torque limiting is better than a hydraulic system.
As far as fly by wire throttle, it seems to be more reliable than it's cable counterpart.
The mechanical failures are numerous. The Prius had a problem with the steering (nudging or shaking) in an early version, but since then, it has been solid.
They have had failures and a recall, but no fatalities that I am aware of. This is minor compared to the number of failed power steering pumps, belts, and hoses in a year in the rest of the market.
If the software fails, I want the pilot to be able to _pull_ at the thing and have a nice physical path to the flaps, instead of an disconnected joystick.
Let's compare some old school with new stuff and see if that really makes sense. Let's start with safety and reliability. They are tightly related.
Let's start with a short ramble, but I'm getting there.. In the old days (really old) the wagon brakes were a stick on a pin with a lever pushing a shoe into the wheel. Reliability was fair. In a panic the pin would fail, or the stick would break. Control was poor as each stick worked for only one wheel. Newer cars have moved to a hydraulic system where one pedal would apply brakes to all four wheels. The new system is more complex with more points of failure. A broken hydraulic hose failure or wheel or master cylinder caused the entire system to fail. To deal with the reliability issues, a back-up consisting of another lever or pedal with a linkage of wires (parking or emergency brake) bypassed part of the system and worked on only two wheels instead of 4. The hydraulic brakes went to a split or dual master cylinder to prevent a full system failure.
Notice as the system becomes more complex, there are more points of failure. There is also more redundancy, which adds to the complexity. Improvements in materials has eliminated the broken wood brake lever and pin. Overall the brakes works much better and is vastly more reliable than the brake on the covered wagons.
I have given up the mechanical control for electronic control for improved reliability and safety
I now have a Prius. The transmission is entirely fly by wire as it is simply a planatary gear set coupled with a pair of motor generators. Changing the power to/from the motor generators is entirely how the variable transmission works. This has mechanically reduced complexity and increased reliability. Instead of a transmission with over 1,000 mechanical pars and a working fluid, all prone to failure, I now have a transmission with 7 mechanical moving parts, none of which is a friction or clutch part. As a bonus, the software control has fantastic traction control. Prius owners either love it or don't understand it and hate it. It is fantastic on snow. If a wheel slips, power is instantly cut. Those who are used to burning rubber to get unstuck will hate it. Those who ease power to regain traction and ease out will love it. (I am the latter and often use it to roll gently away from a stop sign at a slick intersection.)
It would be possible to have a wire to bypass the fly by wire throttle, but engine power when the transmission is fly-by-wire is pointless.
Let's compare the merits of both. My last car was a Ford Mustang with a stick shift. In the time I had it, I had one clutch cable failure and one engine failure from over speed when it popped out of gear once. I lost a rod. I have put twice the miles on the Prius. I have had no failures except the 12 volt battery needed changed when it wouldn't hold a charge for 2 days anymore. A cable to the throttle can be reliable. Sometimes they stick (often at wide open) when getting onto a freeway or passing. Clutch cables fail. In my driving history, I have had to limp back in two separate cars with a broken clutch cable. Driving on a broken clutch cable in heavy traffic is not really safe. Try it sometime in light traffic. A Prius won't let you destroy the engine from putting a brick on the pedal. In neutral, the engine does nothing. In park it simply goes to a faster idle.
Mechanically the car I drive is much simpler, but electrically in software, it is much more complex. This does introduce a possible single point of failure while eliminating many mechanical and driver induced points of failure. Is it safer? Is it more reliable? Will it last longer? I believe yes! Are those who fear it because they don't understand it and don't trust it? Absolutely.
If it is a software problem, then expect more public scrutiny of software based machinery.
That is not likely. More likely is they had a glitch from a strong RF field someplace. Knowing the timing, it is likely to be either a radar or other high power beam or a very near lower powered source such as a cell phone inside the farady cage. Very likely the radio source is from something like this; **RING** **RING** "Hi hon, we are landing now.. Oh no, somethings wrong.."
I could imaging publishing the 4,000 pages as a Wiki and recruiting "editors" to analyze the document and mount a response. (Hopefully this would not attract too much Slashdot-style IANAL legal advice)
Why not? The postings are often valid. It worked for Ray Beckman in punching holes in the media sentry deposition. As a matter of fact, it worked very well. Everything from an IP is not a person, IP spoofing, unsecured wireless, time & date errors in server logs, errors in ISP log retrieval, to they don't have a PI license in this state all were lethal to the RIAA case.
Post it, let the public pick it apart and then let the legal team toss the invalid ones and harvest the good stuff. What sticks is what counts.
The article states there are 700,000 pages of documents.
Cut and paste; "The cost of the investigation stands at SEK 350 million, EUR 38 million or USD 45 million as of February 25, 2006.[12] The total number of pages accumulated during the investigation is around 700,000.[13] The reward for solving the murder is SEK 50 million.[14]
Should creators insist on technology that will restrict the copying and transmission of copyrighted works?
The simple answer is based on a decision. Is it more important to keep unauthorised people from using your product (possible sales loss to piracy) or more important to keep buying customers happy (lost sales due to problems introduced).
In short, Microsoft for example is big on protecting it's product with WGA, Validation, and litigation. Did they lose more customers because Vista Sucks, or did they lose more in older versions from piracy. How many now decide what to use in software based on the BSA goon squad. If the EULA permits an audit at any time, then it is rejected. The alternative licenses are much safer. Permission to install the software on all my computers is a definate plus. You pick the software license you will use in the future.
In the music industry, is more sales lost to rootkits, lawsuits, and DRM on CD's, or is more sales lost due to piracy. Don't make the mistake of counting a pirated copy as a lost sale. A free copy of a song, movie, program, etc simply would not always result in sales of a $15 CD, a $25 dollar DVD, or $400 office suite. The prevention of a collection of 5,000 pirated MP3 songs will not equate to sales of $5,000 worth of iTunes sales.
Sure, it might be technically possible for an expert to do some kind of analysis that detects it as a forgery, but does anyone really think that the police/DA are going to call up JPL and ask them to process it?
I had jury duty and that question came up with some drugs found. The whole thing revolves proving a chain of custody. Is the substance collected at the site the same substance presented in the case? Who had it? Who secured it? A hard drive from a hardware time-lapse camera system is more credible in court than a video submitted by some guy with a cam. The chain from the cam to whatever the media is that is supplied is in question. Often editing software will leave digital fingerprints in the final product. As an example a video editor in importing video, may change the sample depth, dithering, aspect ratio, framerate, etc. Take a look at DVD rips for example. They seldom are bit perfect copies of the original video. They often are cropped to remove letterbox changing the aspect ratio, compressed to fit on a portable player or Divix CD, and frames dropped.
Often overlooked by those doing an edit, is they forget to change the file date of the edited file. The event was on Tuesday, but the video was created on Thursday.
What do you bet there may be a long list of people wanting that job?
You couldn't pay me enough to surf MySpace all day. It's not a job I would want. It would be as much fun as surfing Slashdot all day with the task of deleting all the GNAA and Goatse posts.
My son could bypass any system to verify parental consent easily. However, in my house we practice this apparently rare thing called, 'mutual respect' whereby he doesn't do such things, and I don't invade his privacy.
Don't forget to check once in a while to verify he is deserving of privacy. About one a month, I do a random spot check of my router logs. If I get a bunch of shady visits logged, it's crunch time. It's part of setting a family internet use policy and verifying compliance just like my employer.
Slashdot Mirror
I still need to own a computer, have Internet access, and pay for the electricity to hear it.
On the other hand we are off to a fantastic start. The software to do pro level recording is free. The hardware interfaces to do high quality multi-track recording are down in price. The Behringer U-Control series is quality at a bargain basement price if you only need CD or 48KHZ 16 bit quality.
http://www.pcconnection.com/IPA/Shop/Product/Detail.htm?sku=7866464 CD quality for under $50! Works out of the box in Ubuntu Studio.
For starters, I recommend Ubuntu Studio. It is based on the Real Time kernel for low latency capture with no buffer over/under runs (when set up properly) a good USB capture board. M-Audio USB and PCI stuff work well. Avoid firewire on Ubuntu at this time. It still has issues. For software use either Audacity directly with the hardware or use Ardour GTK2 with Jack. Ardor is a little harder to get going with Jack, but the patch bay for effects can't be beat. Industry standard 24 bit 48KHZ sample rates is directly supported as well as CD standard 16 bit 44.1KHZ and 32bit floating point 96KHZ for serious mastering.
Depending on your choice of hardware, recording masters at 2-8 tracks isn't difficult. (I have both 2 channel 16 bit 48KHZ, and 4 channel recording hardware with support up to 96 KHZ samples in true 24 bit glory.) Getting a drum 4 track recording is easy ready for post production EQ and mix-down. After the drum track is down and edited adding compression, limiting and EQ, adding the lead and bass guitar is next, followed by lead and backup vocals. Then the vocals are ready for stereo FX on another track and stereo guitar FX on another track then final post production. Audacity handles 4 drum tracks, 2 guitar tracks 2 stereo guitar FX tracks and 4 stereo vocal FX tracks just fine. It's fun to watch playback of all 18 tracks and have control over each while you tweak it for 2 track mix-down for the master tape at 48KHZ 24 bit and master CD at 44.1KHZ 16 bit. Real-time low latency playback of the drum and guitar tracks is needed for adding the vocals. Sequenced or real keyboard is optional. Vista is not suited for this.
What to avoid...
1 Windows Vista. It is not real-time. To get it to work requires large buffers placing a high latency on your capture. This makes recording a track while playing a track (adding the vocal to the background track) almost impossible without lots of post production to time sync the tracks.
2 Anything SoundBlaster. SB compatibility is another name for re sample. They have no direct capture at 24bit 44.1, 48, and 96KHZ. They are OK for VOIP telephone, podcasting, and speech recording, but will mangle serious music mastering. Your software may chose other same/bit rates, but remember, it is re-sampled, not captured at that rate.
What to get.. Pro sound mixer. Some have the audio capture board built-in. Remember the limitations on fire wire. They are OK on Windows XP. Audacity is free and runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Some fire ware mixers have 8 track capture! Awesome.. But it is Windows only at this time.
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Ardour if fantastic if you want to step up. You have to get jack working to use it. It has a much steeper learning curve to route all the patch cords and you can overload the processor and get glitches. This is for advanced users with hot CPU's.
http://ardour.org/
So if you have a laptop with a USB port, a USB capture device, and a source of quality sound such as a mixing board or guitar amp with line out, you are ready to make CD quality recordings.
Oh, I forgot the other requirement.. Talent.
it seems that this is the cost of production, not the cost to the consumer. If we are selling it a buck a gallon from the pump after the inclusion of taxes, then I am interested. Until then, please use my corn for good uses such as the syrup in my Mt. Dew like God intended.
From the article it looks like the cost of conversion, not the cost of materials. They mentioned 2 bales of hay conversion to 5 gallons of fuel. Priced midwest hay lately?
Using an online calculator for Idaho alfalfa hay, I get "Average price for Idaho alfalfa hay is $5.5 per Small Square Bale." That's over $10 for the hay to make 5 gallons. It doesn't come to $1.00/gal in my math.
http://www.hayexchange.com/hayexcha/cgi-bin/sell/av_price.cgi
But seriously, this is good news! It is always good news (for law-abiding people) when crooks start feeding off each other.
I read an even better possibility into this. What if the kit was released by VISA/Master card, Discover, and American Express. They would have a front line into shutting down stolen card numbers, canceling cards and getting great data including IP addresses. Working with merchants, they could follow the canceled sales for a great bust of the ring. Brilliant if true.
Thank god DRM is here to protect me from the work I need to do. Wasn't apple supposed to me the machine for media professionals?
Have you tried Ubuntu Studio? http://ubuntustudio.org/
That's what I now use for digital audio work.
I use it daily, not just for email and presentations but I actually write code on it.
I'm glad you changed the defaults. Out of the box, Vista is unsuitable for presentations. We found that out the hard way, We were doing a presentation using the brand new laptop in the field. There was no internet connection. We used a projector as the second monitor (Presentation mode/dual monitor). About 20 minutes into the presentation while playing a DVD, the movie playback stopped and the player minimised leaving a blank desktop. WTF???? We got up and checked the laptop screen for errors. There is an update for Acrobat Reader. It was a prompt to check for updates!
Since you do presentations, I can only assume you turned UAC prompts off as they are incompatible with live presentations.
Annoying one user is a bother. Shutting down the presentation is reason to use something else reliable for the task.
Speed isn't the only problem. The default configuration is unsuitable for presentations and live DAW recording.
Other software provides multitrack latency in the 1-3 mS range. Vista requires a huge buffer with no guarantee of under/over run glitches and low jitter. Lots of memory may provide a better buffer but at the cost of latency. A 500 mS buffer is OK for simple recording, but it is totaly unsuitable for layering in another track. (Playing background track while recording lead or vocal tracks)
"The authors explain why current popular computer architectures are not suited to these new tasks,"
http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=8182
"While the software may function adequately with onboard soundcards for basic editing and production, better fidelity and greatly enhanced multitrack performance will accompany the use of one of the large number of boxes or cards that are made specifically to handle audio for DAW software. These devices generally add monitoring and mixing software along with multiple digital or analog inputs and outputs. They can communicate with the computer and software via the internal protocols in the Mac or PC OS, or may, as long as the software is compliant, work with another Steinberg-developed open, cross-platform protocol called ASIO. ASIO can enhance the communication between your software and I/O hardware, and some hardware and software manufacturers are now advertising "near zero latency monitoring" using ASIO."
http://radiomagonline.com/recording/radio_technology_fuels_creativity/index2.html
Vist and AISO is buggy.
http://www.bjorn3d.com/forum/showthread.php?t=19107
"So, I switched over the the AISO Multimedia Driver and that's when the latency kicked in. If I hit a key on my MIDI the delay was almost a full five seconds before the not would sound off." (Vista Home)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_stream_input_output "ASIO bypasses the normal audio path from the user application through layers of intermediary Windows operating system software, so that the application connects directly to the soundcard hardware."
MS doesn't like it when you have direct access to unprotected audio streams..
"Sonars WDM/KS connects close to the Kernal layer but doesn't entirely bypass the WDM "Audio stack" while ASIO shouldn't go near it at all. It remains to be seen if the Vista that's released will prevent special drivers like ASIO, but since Steinberg have now gone to the trouble of releasing a 64bit ASIO spec, I should think Vista will be business as usual for most of us.
However, if the "audio stack" has been reworked, I hope someone from Cakewalk can say if WDM/KS will still be available under Vista. It will still be needed to bypass windows sound with whatever the normal Vista driver is."
Good point. I just looked to see if Apple is a BSA member.
Unfortunately according to Wikipedia, they are..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Software_Alliance Scroll down to the members list.. Yuck!
" * Adobe Systems
* Apple Inc.
* Autodesk
* Avid Technology
* Bentley Systems
* Borland
* CA, Inc.
* Cadence Design Systems
* Cisco Systems
* CNC Software/Mastercam
* Dell
* EMC Corporation
* Entrust
* Hewlett-Packard
* IBM
* Intel Corporation
* McAfee
* Microsoft
* Monotype Imaging
* Network Associates
* Oracle Corporation
* PTC
* RSA Security
* SAP
* SolidWorks
* Sybase
* Symantec
* Synopsys
* The Mathworks
* UGS PLM Solutions Inc.
It looks like they are giving free software and support
What's very funny is Microsoft had a 10 question quiz in an ad here on slashdot. The quiz was to "test your knowledge of software licensing". For grins, I took the test. It will not let you go got the next question (training maze) until you got the current question correct. If they just scored it, I would have done poorly as I chose what a consumer friendly answer should be. Taking the quiz fully convinced me that with GNU style licenses out there, the MS license will lose.
For example, you have a computer with an OEM Windows install. It dies. Can you reinstall the software on another computer? The answer is no. The license is only for the dead computer and is not transferable. Just how does that stack up against my other software which includes the permission to install it on any and all computers I own. Getting me to buy their software is going to be tough. With Open Office, everyone has the same version. With MS Office, I have a machine with Office 97. The daughter has the Office 2003, and the wife's new Vista laptop has the new copy provided for the cost of the media through my employer. It expires when I lose my job or retire. Compare licenses again. One copy on one machine or a site license for all the machines in my house.. Easy choice.. We all have a copy of the up to date Open Office. It supports ODF out of the box, not as a plug-in.
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/2075/word_2007_open_save_odf_documents
Schools who have to deal with donated machines and per seat licenses have the BSA to fear. Schools who use OSS software do not have this legal liability. MS will either have to blanket change their license or continue to find their market erode.
http://www.linux.com/feed/37845 (Oregon school faces BSA Audit)
Business also has to deal with the sticky terms of the MS license
http://www.news.com/2008-1082_3-5065859.html (Ernie Ball's BSA audit, cost $65,000, plus $35,000 in legal fees)
Those badly hurt and afraid will need a lot more than just a sweet deal to switch back.
You must be young. The limit is the new fix. It fixed the 8 char filename and 3 char extension..
My wife has [Vista] on her new laptop. It replaced her Windows ME laptop.
Now THAT'S bad karma!
That's skipping a generation or two instead of buying every new version from Redmond that comes out. It ran Office 97 for her homework just fine, connected to the LAN, and printers, and such just fine. We just knew it was not an internet media machine. We surfed with something safer and kept it behind NAT.
Did I mention I updated my laptop to Ubuntu? Does that help the Karma? I put Ubuntu Studio on my Core 2 Duo tm. machine as an A/V workstation. The wife was locked into a propritory Office Suite. I didn't spend the money on Codeweavers Crossover Office.
We just used what we had as it worked.
http://www.codeweavers.com/products/cxoffice/
Ever thought about buying an XP license, repartitioning the harddrive of the laptop and installing XP? That's a lot cheaper than buying a new Laptop. Did the same with my dad's new office machine...
I thought about it. The thought of paying for two copies of Windows for one laptop quickly changed my mind. I'd reather resell the laptop intact to raise the funds for the other laptop with only one Windows License.
Microsoft says they learned from their mistakes, and have been deconstructing Windows to remove bloat, and make the whole thing run faster.
They need to hurry on that one. People are discovering the alternatives. Instead of Vista, I moved to Ubuntu. In Ubuntu, I got hooked on the Digital Audio Workstation. From there I learned Linux has a real-time kernal if you want it. It can come pre-configured as Ubuntu Studio. For multi-track recording with low latency, it rocks. I have since found serious audio capture on Vista is highly discouraged. Windows 98SE, NT, or XP are recommended as Vista is way too far from realtime for quality recording. Large buffers mean high latency. This is bad for multi-track. Timing problems cause large jitter. Non-realtime kernel means buffer over and under runs.
Vista can play DRM content with a protected playback path. If you want to do your own creation, use something else.
Many audio interface manufactures simply say drivers for Vista are comming. I think they are waiting for Microsoft to fix the kernal so drivers have a chance of working.
Vista was a total bomb. There is no denying it at all.
I agree. My wife has it on her new laptop. It replaced her Windows ME laptop. She seldom uses it. She only uses it because 1 It's a laptop and portable, 2 It has a DVD writer in it... The rest of the time, she uses the desktop machine instead. Now if I can find a cheap XP laptop with a DVD writer, she will be happy as a clam.
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20011229&mode=classic
Why don't the igniters (which are sort of like a car spark plug, but the size of a beer bottle) crash the avionics when they're turned on?
Put your cell phone inside a metal coffee can and type a reply. Now take the phone out of the metal can and put it inside the computer case next to the memory. Don't bother replying. You will be busy rebooting.
Antennas outside the metal can are not the same as antennas inside the can with the electronics.
Apparently it's simply more important to protect ??AA profits than it is to have an open and freethinking educational system. Signs of this are all over the place, from both parties. Evolution, anyone? Anyone wonder how soon teaching that the universe is older than 6000 years will be challenged, or Galileo will rejoin the ranks of heretics?
Who cares? The next generation won't need a college education unless they want to move to a technology leader country such as Japan or China. The US will simply move down the ladder to 3rd world status. When the out of work Americans can't afford iPods and high speed internet anymore, the problem will go away.
(end rant)
It is important to have universities teach. This attack on education (it isn't support in any way) is outside the scope of what a university is all about. I hope this doesn't get traction and stuff that helps higher learning instead of attacking it gets traction.
If the steering software of the Prius has a hidden bug, the result will probably be a completely blocked car, in a sudden way.
This is highly unlikely simply because the steering is not fly by wire. The power steering is simply power assist just like in a conventional car. The assist is a linear electric motor instead of a hydraulic system. As such, it's torque limiting is better than a hydraulic system.
As far as fly by wire throttle, it seems to be more reliable than it's cable counterpart.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=stuck+throttle&btnG=Google+Search
The mechanical failures are numerous. The Prius had a problem with the steering (nudging or shaking) in an early version, but since then, it has been solid.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=prius+power+steering+failure&btnG=Search
They have had failures and a recall, but no fatalities that I am aware of. This is minor compared to the number of failed power steering pumps, belts, and hoses in a year in the rest of the market.
If the software fails, I want the pilot to be able to _pull_ at the thing and have a nice physical path to the flaps, instead of an disconnected joystick.
Let's compare some old school with new stuff and see if that really makes sense. Let's start with safety and reliability. They are tightly related.
Let's start with a short ramble, but I'm getting there.. In the old days (really old) the wagon brakes were a stick on a pin with a lever pushing a shoe into the wheel. Reliability was fair. In a panic the pin would fail, or the stick would break. Control was poor as each stick worked for only one wheel. Newer cars have moved to a hydraulic system where one pedal would apply brakes to all four wheels. The new system is more complex with more points of failure. A broken hydraulic hose failure or wheel or master cylinder caused the entire system to fail. To deal with the reliability issues, a back-up consisting of another lever or pedal with a linkage of wires (parking or emergency brake) bypassed part of the system and worked on only two wheels instead of 4. The hydraulic brakes went to a split or dual master cylinder to prevent a full system failure.
Notice as the system becomes more complex, there are more points of failure. There is also more redundancy, which adds to the complexity. Improvements in materials has eliminated the broken wood brake lever and pin. Overall the brakes works much better and is vastly more reliable than the brake on the covered wagons.
I have given up the mechanical control for electronic control for improved reliability and safety
I now have a Prius. The transmission is entirely fly by wire as it is simply a planatary gear set coupled with a pair of motor generators. Changing the power to/from the motor generators is entirely how the variable transmission works. This has mechanically reduced complexity and increased reliability. Instead of a transmission with over 1,000 mechanical pars and a working fluid, all prone to failure, I now have a transmission with 7 mechanical moving parts, none of which is a friction or clutch part. As a bonus, the software control has fantastic traction control. Prius owners either love it or don't understand it and hate it. It is fantastic on snow. If a wheel slips, power is instantly cut. Those who are used to burning rubber to get unstuck will hate it. Those who ease power to regain traction and ease out will love it. (I am the latter and often use it to roll gently away from a stop sign at a slick intersection.)
It would be possible to have a wire to bypass the fly by wire throttle, but engine power when the transmission is fly-by-wire is pointless.
Let's compare the merits of both. My last car was a Ford Mustang with a stick shift. In the time I had it, I had one clutch cable failure and one engine failure from over speed when it popped out of gear once. I lost a rod. I have put twice the miles on the Prius. I have had no failures except the 12 volt battery needed changed when it wouldn't hold a charge for 2 days anymore. A cable to the throttle can be reliable. Sometimes they stick (often at wide open) when getting onto a freeway or passing. Clutch cables fail. In my driving history, I have had to limp back in two separate cars with a broken clutch cable. Driving on a broken clutch cable in heavy traffic is not really safe. Try it sometime in light traffic. A Prius won't let you destroy the engine from putting a brick on the pedal. In neutral, the engine does nothing. In park it simply goes to a faster idle.
Mechanically the car I drive is much simpler, but electrically in software, it is much more complex. This does introduce a possible single point of failure while eliminating many mechanical and driver induced points of failure. Is it safer? Is it more reliable? Will it last longer? I believe yes! Are those who fear it because they don't understand it and don't trust it? Absolutely.
If it is a software problem, then expect more public scrutiny of software based machinery.
That is not likely. More likely is they had a glitch from a strong RF field someplace. Knowing the timing, it is likely to be either a radar or other high power beam or a very near lower powered source such as a cell phone inside the farady cage. Very likely the radio source is from something like this; **RING** **RING** "Hi hon, we are landing now.. Oh no, somethings wrong.."
I could imaging publishing the 4,000 pages as a Wiki and recruiting "editors" to analyze the document and mount a response. (Hopefully this would not attract too much Slashdot-style IANAL legal advice)
Why not? The postings are often valid. It worked for Ray Beckman in punching holes in the media sentry deposition. As a matter of fact, it worked very well. Everything from an IP is not a person, IP spoofing, unsecured wireless, time & date errors in server logs, errors in ISP log retrieval, to they don't have a PI license in this state all were lethal to the RIAA case.
Post it, let the public pick it apart and then let the legal team toss the invalid ones and harvest the good stuff. What sticks is what counts.
The article states there are 700,000 pages of documents.
Cut and paste;
"The cost of the investigation stands at SEK 350 million, EUR 38 million or USD 45 million as of February 25, 2006.[12]
The total number of pages accumulated during the investigation is around 700,000.[13]
The reward for solving the murder is SEK 50 million.[14]
Should creators insist on technology that will restrict the copying and transmission of copyrighted works?
The simple answer is based on a decision. Is it more important to keep unauthorised people from using your product (possible sales loss to piracy) or more important to keep buying customers happy (lost sales due to problems introduced).
In short, Microsoft for example is big on protecting it's product with WGA, Validation, and litigation. Did they lose more customers because Vista Sucks, or did they lose more in older versions from piracy. How many now decide what to use in software based on the BSA goon squad. If the EULA permits an audit at any time, then it is rejected. The alternative licenses are much safer. Permission to install the software on all my computers is a definate plus. You pick the software license you will use in the future.
In the music industry, is more sales lost to rootkits, lawsuits, and DRM on CD's, or is more sales lost due to piracy. Don't make the mistake of counting a pirated copy as a lost sale. A free copy of a song, movie, program, etc simply would not always result in sales of a $15 CD, a $25 dollar DVD, or $400 office suite. The prevention of a collection of 5,000 pirated MP3 songs will not equate to sales of $5,000 worth of iTunes sales.
TVs above every pump, playing the news and running commercials at an ear piercing level.
It's just to keep people off the cell phone while pumping gas.
Sure, it might be technically possible for an expert to do some kind of analysis that detects it as a forgery, but does anyone really think that the police/DA are going to call up JPL and ask them to process it?
I had jury duty and that question came up with some drugs found. The whole thing revolves proving a chain of custody. Is the substance collected at the site the same substance presented in the case? Who had it? Who secured it? A hard drive from a hardware time-lapse camera system is more credible in court than a video submitted by some guy with a cam. The chain from the cam to whatever the media is that is supplied is in question. Often editing software will leave digital fingerprints in the final product. As an example a video editor in importing video, may change the sample depth, dithering, aspect ratio, framerate, etc. Take a look at DVD rips for example. They seldom are bit perfect copies of the original video. They often are cropped to remove letterbox changing the aspect ratio, compressed to fit on a portable player or Divix CD, and frames dropped.
Often overlooked by those doing an edit, is they forget to change the file date of the edited file. The event was on Tuesday, but the video was created on Thursday.
Washington.
Wait, is that even a state?
Last time I checked, it was still a state. Bill Gates hasn't purchased it yet.
What do you bet there may be a long list of people wanting that job?
You couldn't pay me enough to surf MySpace all day. It's not a job I would want. It would be as much fun as surfing Slashdot all day with the task of deleting all the GNAA and Goatse posts.
My son could bypass any system to verify parental consent easily. However, in my house we practice this apparently rare thing called, 'mutual respect' whereby he doesn't do such things, and I don't invade his privacy.
Don't forget to check once in a while to verify he is deserving of privacy. About one a month, I do a random spot check of my router logs. If I get a bunch of shady visits logged, it's crunch time. It's part of setting a family internet use policy and verifying compliance just like my employer.