Robert L. Park, the President of the American Physical Society, wrote a book that deals with this and explains it clearly: Voodoo Science. He will probably treat this "rebirth" of the hype on his What's new science column.
Wow, I didn't know Robert was yet another idiot.
When will some physicians learn?
Even if our current theories says something is impossible, that has nothing to do with if it actually is.
It's a bit scary he has such a high position as well.:-/
Seems that no one can even design a retail OS without plagerizing someone else's UI.
Hmm, I wonder if this has anything to do with learning curves and being used to an OS. You know, the same reason why you usually choose gears on a car the same way, regardless manufacturer.
I think the question is this: how does a 128kbps AAC file (like you would get from iTunes Music Store) compare in actual sound quality (not bitrate) to a 160kbps Windows Media file from Microsoft's site?
I think so, Microsoft did some major improvements in WMA9. The last blind test I saw was actually won by even some 128 kbps WMA9 (note the '9' here) music, and yes, 128 kbps AAC was in the test, as well as Ogg and MP3.
And don't forget that most users who follow these directions probably don't grasp the abstract Internet Zones concept (Microsoft don't bother recommending to set up one for WMP either), and will open up their browser for all sorts of ActiveX stuff everwhere by clicking where Microsoft says they should click. Arrgh...:-P
I just read a blind listening test where 128 kbps WMA9 won over 128 kbps (which is on iTunes) AAC. And Microsoft is using a slightly higher bit rate than that.
Sometimes, people seem to miss the huge improvements Microsoft did when they introduced WMA9.
I can't judge the quality myself though, since neither iTunes nor this service is available where I live.
Among the system requirements of the music store are these:
(from the FAQ at Microsoft)
- ActiveX controls and plug-ins -> Download signed ActiveX controls: choose "enabled" or "prompt" - ActiveX controls and plug-ins -> Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting: choose "enabled" - Scripting -> Active Scripting: choose "enabled" - Miscellaneous -> Navigate sub Frames across different domains: choose "enabled"
You also need to install the ActiveX Control to use MSN Music with administrator rights.
Of course, if you're using an insecure configuration of IE, this is already your settings. Otherwise, you need to setup a new Internet Zone for Windows Media Player with these low security settings and cross your fingers there'll never ever be any exploits to run code in WMP 10's security zone. There's already a well-known exploit in the wild for IE that will work if Active Scripting is enabled (was that scrollbar trick recently in the news, I think).
Don't you just love the implications of IE integration with media players and all sorts of other stuff?:-P
I'm so happy I can keep talking about nasty stuff like the triangleboy's new UltraSurf unixbox he bought at UltraMart, not to mention the playboy's paper in the peacehall which teaches how to setup a Huanet SafeWeb.
Seriously, how come these assholes will get the Olympics in 2008?
Since when did security become a goal you can achieve after a certain amount of time?
It's something you always need to keep an eye open for, and combat exploits whenever necessary. How can Microsoft say "it's more of a 10-year timeline". That statement alone makes me wonder how sane Microsoft's security program manager is. So Microsoft are going to dismantle their security team in 2011?
What would the Linux community think if Linus went out claiming that "we expect the Linux kernel to be secure in version 3.0"??
Anyone who takes software security seriously should understand that you can never expect a product to be secure after some period of time.
"Secure" is also relative and not at all an absolute term.
Slashdot Mirror
They could have at least waited for the 10th version: the awesome name "Direct X, X"
Version 10 would of course be powerful enough to be labelled as "Extreme".
That would make DirectX 10 eXtreme = Direct XXX.
Surely enough to grab any gamer's attention.
Geeks are 100% dedicated to a relationship and will go that extra mile.
Indeed...
Wikipedia != encyclopedia.
Wikipedia == blog
No, while you make a good point, a blog is short for "web log", which is basically a log of select events that takes place during a person's life.
thecounter.com is going to be based on people who look at crappy homepages etc. though, which I would think is not representative either.
Eh what? Define "crappy" and explain why geeks are somehow above the rest and only look at "cool" websites?
One might've thought that it was just another name generated by the Firesomething extension ;)
Yep, but once again it's a name not taken out of the blue (I thought Firefox was before I had heard there actually was such an animal).
Sunbird isn't a reference to the code names Phoenix (or Firebird) either, but to this bird.
It is going to affect 90% + of all the computers in the world.
:-)
Yup, in one way or another.
At least it shows the MS Quality Assurance team don't use Dell.
These news sure struck like lightning from a clear sky!
*phew*
I think I must sit down to recover from the shock.
They tried to sue The Pirate Bay (www.thepiratebay.org), a swedish BitTorrent site.
_ mail.txt
:-)
e .txt
:-P
Here's their mail and reply:
http://static.thepiratebay.org/dreamworks
Short and to the point.
Whoops, here's the reply:
http://static.thepiratebay.org/dreamworks_respons
I quoted the parent so you don't need to mod it up if you were thinking about it; not trying to karma whore by splitting my messages up.
They tried to sue The Pirate Bay (www.thepiratebay.org), a swedish BitTorrent site.
t
:-)
Here's their mail and reply:
http://static.thepiratebay.org/dreamworks_mail.tx
Short and to the point.
Robert L. Park, the President of the American Physical Society, wrote a book that deals with this and explains it clearly: Voodoo Science. He will probably treat this "rebirth" of the hype on his What's new science column.
:-/
Wow, I didn't know Robert was yet another idiot.
When will some physicians learn?
Even if our current theories says something is impossible, that has nothing to do with if it actually is.
It's a bit scary he has such a high position as well.
Seems that no one can even design a retail OS without plagerizing someone else's UI.
Hmm, I wonder if this has anything to do with learning curves and being used to an OS. You know, the same reason why you usually choose gears on a car the same way, regardless manufacturer.
I wonder...
WMA plain sucks
3 ,00.asp
-snip-
160kbps WMA are better than 128kbps WMA, but it's no way better than what you can found on concurrent services at 128kbps.
Err... You're talking about pre-WMA9, right?
It's a very good format by now.
Check out some blind test that explicitly is about WMA9:
http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,156078
I think the question is this: how does a 128kbps AAC file (like you would get from iTunes Music Store) compare in actual sound quality (not bitrate) to a 160kbps Windows Media file from Microsoft's site?
I think so, Microsoft did some major improvements in WMA9. The last blind test I saw was actually won by even some 128 kbps WMA9 (note the '9' here) music, and yes, 128 kbps AAC was in the test, as well as Ogg and MP3.
And don't forget that most users who follow these directions probably don't grasp the abstract Internet Zones concept (Microsoft don't bother recommending to set up one for WMP either), and will open up their browser for all sorts of ActiveX stuff everwhere by clicking where Microsoft says they should click. Arrgh... :-P
I just read a blind listening test where 128 kbps WMA9 won over 128 kbps (which is on iTunes) AAC. And Microsoft is using a slightly higher bit rate than that.
Sometimes, people seem to miss the huge improvements Microsoft did when they introduced WMA9.
I can't judge the quality myself though, since neither iTunes nor this service is available where I live.
Among the system requirements of the music store are these:
:-P
(from the FAQ at Microsoft)
- ActiveX controls and plug-ins -> Download signed ActiveX controls: choose "enabled" or "prompt"
- ActiveX controls and plug-ins -> Script ActiveX controls marked safe for scripting: choose "enabled"
- Scripting -> Active Scripting: choose "enabled"
- Miscellaneous -> Navigate sub Frames across different domains: choose "enabled"
You also need to install the ActiveX Control to use MSN Music with administrator rights.
Of course, if you're using an insecure configuration of IE, this is already your settings. Otherwise, you need to setup a new Internet Zone for Windows Media Player with these low security settings and cross your fingers there'll never ever be any exploits to run code in WMP 10's security zone. There's already a well-known exploit in the wild for IE that will work if Active Scripting is enabled (was that scrollbar trick recently in the news, I think).
Don't you just love the implications of IE integration with media players and all sorts of other stuff?
This got slashdotted!?
:-P
Not everyone has read Goedel, Escher, or Bach in linguistic classes.
They monitor the internet, right?
:-)
Let's see...
<echelonbait>I love how the bearded middle east man razed the twin towers.</echelonbait>
Since I live in Europe, let's see if any car is showing up.
I'm so happy I can keep talking about nasty stuff like the triangleboy's new UltraSurf unixbox he bought at UltraMart, not to mention the playboy's paper in the peacehall which teaches how to setup a Huanet SafeWeb.
Seriously, how come these assholes will get the Olympics in 2008?
actually, I didn't input the entire number, I omitted the last four.
In that case you won't find it even if it was there. Google uses exact matches, so 1234 won't match 123456789.
This one was just crazy!
For some reason I wasn't touched to that point. Probably because I found the story to be pushing too hard, and also that it was quite predictable.
Since when did security become a goal you can achieve after a certain amount of time?
It's something you always need to keep an eye open for, and combat exploits whenever necessary. How can Microsoft say "it's more of a 10-year timeline". That statement alone makes me wonder how sane Microsoft's security program manager is. So Microsoft are going to dismantle their security team in 2011?
What would the Linux community think if Linus went out claiming that "we expect the Linux kernel to be secure in version 3.0"??
Anyone who takes software security seriously should understand that you can never expect a product to be secure after some period of time.
"Secure" is also relative and not at all an absolute term.
To save their bandwidth, you should've linked to their mirror!
http://www.nyud.net.nyud.net:8090