I use the Omega hacked drivers on my laptop because the normal Catalyst drivers won't install (you have to go to your OEM to get drivers - and they're usually out of date).
So far, so good. They have a few nice features, but I wouldn't expect them to perform any better than the ATI drivers.
Remember, ATI is already searching for every way to improve the performance of their cards. If the DNA people have found such a way, why hasn't ATI incorporated their modifications?
There is hope. Colorado voters decided to pass FasTracks which dramatically extends light-rail and bus service throughout the Dnever area. LRT already handles something like 30% of trips (on routes where LRT is available) in Denver.
People are willing to pay for a better mass transit system - FasTracks will cost nearly $5 billion, but the voters approved a sales tax increase to pay for it.
If PSP isn't launching in Japan fo another 3 weeks, it looks like the system will completely miss the holiday buying season in the US.
Meanwhile, Nintendo is launching the DS in time for Black Friday. Current estimates show pre-orders running in the 5 million unit range in both the US and Japan.
Nintendo will have 5 million systems in the hands of gamers before Sony delivers a single PSP.
The DS has better battery life and it's $50 cheaper.
There will be lots of DS systems sitting under the tree this year. There won't be any DS systems there.
Which system would you develop for if you were EA? The one that will have 5 million units shipped in the US before the end of the year or the system that will have none.
"1. Its the cheapest all purpose IM with Email/SMS on the market."
My $30 Nokia 3590 has SMS, email, and IM.
"2. Cingular+ATT merged, you have the largest SMS coverage in the USA."
Nice try. Cingular/ATT are nowhere near having a single network - it will be months if not years before the networks are effectively one. Not to mention the fact that their combined GSM/GPRS coverage area *still* won't be as big as Verizon's CDMA2000/1xRTT coverage area.
"3. It's a IM only device, which means its in Data mode all the time. Compare 30+ hours of data mode Sidekicks 4 hours of data time."
My SKII is always in data mode (GPRS). It lasts for at least 30 hours. The Blackberry is also in data mode all the time.
"4. PC Magazine states its PERFECT for IM, but not great for Email. Its marketed as an IM device with Email too. So, think of getting email also, not that Email sux0rs."
Think of getting a device with non-shit email support, like the SKII.
"5. Bluetooth is turned off, but guess what, they can enable it later."
"6. Its cheap for SMS, cheap as a pager, but its 2way."
It's neither cheap as an SMS device nor as a pager. Pagers are generally less than $30. Basic Nokia GSM phones with SMS are around $30. Check eBay.
"Now I would of liked a browser, ssh, IRC and a phone."
SKII has a browser and a phone, and you can use SSH to chat on IRC - or develop your own IRC app with the free SDK.
"The net effect of the Coke -> New Coke -> Classic Coke transform was the replacement of sugar with corn syrup."
Nice theory, but it has a flaw:
6 months before New Coke was introduced, there *was no* sugar in Coke in the US. Coca-Cola phased-in corn syrup 10% a year over 10 years.
The fact is, New Coke was a marketing mistake. Coke was losing to Pepsi - so they took the formula for Diet Coke, changed out asparatame for corn syrup, and created a new cola. In double-blind tests it beat out both Coke and Pepsi.
What Coke didn't plan on was the backlash. Coke is an American icon. People didn't want a "better" Coke - they wanted the Coke they knew and loved.
Did you ever stop to think that..... it doesn't use RSA?
This is *NOT* RSA, its' SHA-1.
Basically, you combine the email address and other details that you want to send mail to with a variable salt to generate a SHA-1 hash. The goal is to change the salt to generate a SHA-1 hash where the first 20 bits are zero. That means that you have to cycle through approximately 500,000 salt values to find a valid hash.
Recent versions of Outlook (2000 SP1 and beyond) and Outlook Express (IE SP1 and beyond) display emails in the restricted sites zone. Neither ActiveX nor Javascript are allowed to execute in the restricted sites zone.
This also doesn't affect anyone using SP2 either.
Move along, another already patched Microsoft vulnerability.
"Througout history many citizens have voted for the strong commander to miraculously lead them out of the trouble and a lot of the times it has only brought the into more problems. (To avoid long flamewars I will avoid naming any specific country and leave that to the historicans.)"
"Strange. In the UK at least, we count all the votes before working out who has won"
We do that here too. Remember that Kerry conceding has no legal meaning. It simply means that he acknowledges the (still unofficial, but certain) victory of the President. It also means that neither Kerry nor Bush will engage in a long legal battle to attempt to win the election.
What the grandparent is referring to *is* anticompetitive behavior.
Apple has a near monopoly on digital music players, and they have used this monopoly to take over the music sales business.
They *are* cutting off the oxygen supply of other MP3 companies. They *are* trying to kill the competition.
The Apple iPod only (not counting 3rd party hacks) works with iTunes, and iTunes only works with the iTunes music store.
If you buy tracks from the iTunes music store, you have to load them onto the iPod with iTunes. If you buy an iPod, you have to buy your music with iTunes.
And don't give me that "well you can burn it to CD" crap - how many consumers are really going to burn their tracks to CD and re-rip them to put them on their portable player.
Windows Media *is* the open system.
Yes, it is proprietary.
I can buy a Napster media player (the Samsung) or any one of over 100 players from more than 10 companies, I can download music from the store of my choice (Napster, Wal-Mart, MSN, MusicNow, MusicMatch, or others), I can use their client software or Windows Media Player.
That is choice. I can choose my player, who I buy my music from, and what software I use to play it.
Apple doesn't offer that choice. You either have to go Apple 100% of the way or you don't go Apple at all. Hell, they sued Real for trying to make a compatible system.
That is anticompetitive. If Microsoft released a media player that only worked with MSN Music, people would be up in arms.
"Anything lower is ridiculous and not even worth considering."
That's why you have 100mbit.
EVERYONE with cable internet in the US could have 39mbps access TOMORROW. The modem supports it and the headend supports it.
It's not an infastructure problem at all. The cable companies could simply "flip the switch" and offer 39mbit access. Now, they might have to upgrade their backend or add more trancievers to prevent massive oversubscription, but they could do it.
There is a reason that my cable modem is 3mbps. It's because people don't DEMAND 10mbit. If people started demanding 20mbps access, it would arrive. Most people, however, are perfectly happy with 3mbps.
I'm perfectly happy with 3mbps. The latency is very good (8ms to the gateway, 35ms to Google) and there is enough bandwidth that sites load quickly.
The only time when you can really USE more than 5mbits is when you are transferring large (20mb+) files. Most people in the US don't do that very often. Hell, even a DVD-quality movie downloads in 45 minutes on a 3mbps connection.
Now, I wish I had 25mbps access. But most of the people with 3mbps cable LOVE the service. They think it is plenty fast already. That's why it won't get any faster.
"The hassle of having to reactivate my hardware when I changed things really bugged me."
It's three mouse clicks, or, if you change your hardware *a lot*, it's a two-minute call to Microsoft.
You have to change at least 3 of the ten things that Windows monitors to need to reactivate. HDDs, CPUs, and NICs generally count. GPUs, PCI add-on cards, USB devices, optical drives, and most other things don't.
"get asked stupid questions in order to prove I had a real copy"
They ask three questions. I know because I've gone through the procedure many times:
1: Is this the first time you've activated Windows (say no) 2: May I ask why you are reactivating Windows (say a virus) 3: How many computers is this copy of Windows installed on (say one)
They then give you your activation key.
Hold times are short, they're open 24/7, and their call center has some of the best fake-texan accents I've heard.
"I have noticed that even with Windows XP on brand-new hardware, running one computationally-intensive program in the background (for example, a compiler) slows down the responsiveness of the UI to the point where it is practically unusable."
CPU usage doesn't seem to hurt my XP system. I/O usage, however, does kill the performance of a Windows system. This is a known problem.
"Windows XP does feel amazingly sluggish compared to Mac OS X."
That's amazing, because I have found XP to be more responsive than *any* other OS. Perhaps that's because Firefox launches 2x as fast on my desktop than it does on the dual 2GHz G5s at my workplace. Or, perhaps it's because Word starts up almost instantly.
XP does sometimes feel sluggish when the CPU is swamped, but that's because explorer runs some processes (autocomplete is an example) at the lowest priority.
Also remember that some processes on XP set themselves to highest priority automatically.
You might also try a system with Hyperthreading. It really helps out when the CPU is swamped.
"if I minimise a program, there are THREE different places it can go."
No, there is one. Windows always sends minimized programs to the taskbar. If an application is minimizing to the system tray, it is because the application developer has designed the application explicitly to work around the default behavior.
"or it can be minimised to one of the application launch buttons on the panels"
Windows doesn't have a "panel", nor does it have "application launch buttons". If explorer.exe is not running, applications will minimize to a mini-window (ala 3.11) but this is not a normal condition users will encounter.
"Windows usability is SERIOUSLY overrated, get over it."
Why should I get over anything? I administer IT for my company and I can tell you that there is NOTHING that compares to the power and flexibility of Active Directory. Not LDAP/Linux, not OS X.
Whenever I say that I like AD because I can do this or that, some Linux or OS X user always chimes in and tells me that they could write a shell script to do it. They are missing the point. I don't have to write a shell script.
The next time you want to extole the virtues of KDE's usability, show a new user the Control Center. Or the Konqueror menu bar.
There is a reason that even the Linux zealots in my company have a Windows box on their desktop. We have IMAP, but they choose to use Outlook. Why? Because it's the best tool for the job.
Don't piss all over Windows until you've deployed it in a corporate environment. XP SP2 is not Windows 95.
As of SP2, RPC no longer allows external access. UPNP and file sharing now only accept connections on the local subnet. The firewall is on by default and it blocks almost all incoming connections.
XP SP2 is a different OS from the one released in 2001. It's time to start recognizing that.
Oh, and a preemptive attack on the "Apache is more popular and it's more secure than IIS":
IIS6 has 2 announced security veulnarabilities since its release over a year ago. Apache2 has more than 20 in the same period, not counting OpenSSL veulnerabilities.
You're as bad as those jerks who pop up dialogs telling me to turn off Javascript - or the websites that went "dark" to protest software patents in Europe.
IE users are bombarded with "your computer is insecure" popups that meerly link to spyware. Most users don't trust these ads (hell, we taught them not to) and associating Firefox with such crap will only be harmful when they hear about it later.
The best thing you could do would be to write a text ad (ala Google) at the top of the page if the user is running IE. Don't be insulting, and don't tell them that their computer has a problem.
How about this:
"Mozilla Firefox - The free, secure browser that blocks spyware and popups."
If you want to get your messege accross, don't do it by annoying your users.
The Firefox msi is OK, but if you are in a medium to large company you will want to roll your own.
- Download Firefox 1.0 - Install it - Configure it how you like it (homepage, themes, bookmarks) - Move your profile directory (in your home directory) to the defaults directory for Mozilla - Use advanced installer to pack it into a msi
That way, you can set up Firefox with bookmarks for all your company homepages and with a skin (my favorite is qute) that integrates well with XP.
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I use the Omega hacked drivers on my laptop because the normal Catalyst drivers won't install (you have to go to your OEM to get drivers - and they're usually out of date).
So far, so good. They have a few nice features, but I wouldn't expect them to perform any better than the ATI drivers.
Remember, ATI is already searching for every way to improve the performance of their cards. If the DNA people have found such a way, why hasn't ATI incorporated their modifications?
There is hope. Colorado voters decided to pass FasTracks which dramatically extends light-rail and bus service throughout the Dnever area. LRT already handles something like 30% of trips (on routes where LRT is available) in Denver.
People are willing to pay for a better mass transit system - FasTracks will cost nearly $5 billion, but the voters approved a sales tax increase to pay for it.
If PSP isn't launching in Japan fo another 3 weeks, it looks like the system will completely miss the holiday buying season in the US.
Meanwhile, Nintendo is launching the DS in time for Black Friday. Current estimates show pre-orders running in the 5 million unit range in both the US and Japan.
Nintendo will have 5 million systems in the hands of gamers before Sony delivers a single PSP.
The DS has better battery life and it's $50 cheaper.
There will be lots of DS systems sitting under the tree this year. There won't be any DS systems there.
Which system would you develop for if you were EA? The one that will have 5 million units shipped in the US before the end of the year or the system that will have none.
"1. Its the cheapest all purpose IM with Email/SMS on the market."
My $30 Nokia 3590 has SMS, email, and IM.
"2. Cingular+ATT merged, you have the largest SMS coverage in the USA."
Nice try. Cingular/ATT are nowhere near having a single network - it will be months if not years before the networks are effectively one. Not to mention the fact that their combined GSM/GPRS coverage area *still* won't be as big as Verizon's CDMA2000/1xRTT coverage area.
"3. It's a IM only device, which means its in Data mode all the time. Compare 30+ hours of data mode Sidekicks 4 hours of data time."
My SKII is always in data mode (GPRS). It lasts for at least 30 hours. The Blackberry is also in data mode all the time.
"4. PC Magazine states its PERFECT for IM, but not great for Email. Its marketed as an IM device with Email too. So, think of getting email also, not that Email sux0rs."
Think of getting a device with non-shit email support, like the SKII.
"5. Bluetooth is turned off, but guess what, they can enable it later."
"6. Its cheap for SMS, cheap as a pager, but its 2way."
It's neither cheap as an SMS device nor as a pager. Pagers are generally less than $30. Basic Nokia GSM phones with SMS are around $30. Check eBay.
"Now I would of liked a browser, ssh, IRC and a phone."
SKII has a browser and a phone, and you can use SSH to chat on IRC - or develop your own IRC app with the free SDK.
"The keyboard is smaller than the OGO,"
It may be, but the SK/SKII has *the most usable* thumbkeyboard of any device I've ever used. The OGO demo units had a very poor feel to the keyboard.
"And a monthly contract will 2x-3x the cost of OGO a month if you just use IM."
The OGO is $18 a month. The Sidekick Data plan is $29.99 a month if you don't have voice service.
Keep in mind, the Sidekick II also has:
- A phone
- A web browser
- SSH
- Network sync, including sync to Outlook
The OGO apppears to be a very limited device for the IM crowd. If they added a better email client and a web browser it would be much more worthwhile.
"Almost every linux/unix install has ssh, which makes it trivial to remotely launch an application over a secure connection"
RDP is encrypted using RC4 encryption with a 128-bit key. Not bulletproof but good enough for most uses.
"Ne'ermind that X is multiuser. RDP is limited to one."
No, it's not. XP Pro limits you to one user, but Windows Server can support as many users as you have CALs for.
"The net effect of the Coke -> New Coke -> Classic Coke transform was the replacement of sugar with corn syrup."
Nice theory, but it has a flaw:
6 months before New Coke was introduced, there *was no* sugar in Coke in the US. Coca-Cola phased-in corn syrup 10% a year over 10 years.
The fact is, New Coke was a marketing mistake. Coke was losing to Pepsi - so they took the formula for Diet Coke, changed out asparatame for corn syrup, and created a new cola. In double-blind tests it beat out both Coke and Pepsi.
What Coke didn't plan on was the backlash. Coke is an American icon. People didn't want a "better" Coke - they wanted the Coke they knew and loved.
Did you ever stop to think that.....
it doesn't use RSA?
This is *NOT* RSA, its' SHA-1.
Basically, you combine the email address and other details that you want to send mail to with a variable salt to generate a SHA-1 hash. The goal is to change the salt to generate a SHA-1 hash where the first 20 bits are zero. That means that you have to cycle through approximately 500,000 salt values to find a valid hash.
There is no encryption going on.
"Microsoft was responsible for the software that runs on the Dish Network Dishplayer (7200-series)."
No, they weren't. 95% of the DishPlayer software was written by WebTV *before* Microsoft purchased them.
Echostar's boxes *all* suck because Echostar doesn't have a formal QA process. They use their users to beta test.
That's why I have DirecTV/TiVo.
"Also, a "Hot Water Heater" is non-redundant as well."
Perhaps, but plumbers always call it a "Water Heater".
The hard drive in your Zen wasn't manufacturered or designed by Creative.
The new Zen uses the a 5GB Segate CF drive. Evidently it's pretty durable.
There's no DVB-T in the US. Echostar (Dish Network) offers DVB-S, but it has proprietary encryption so it doesn't work with standard DVB-S recievers.
OTA Digital TV in the US uses the ATSC standard. Satellite and cable TV uses a variety of proprietary solutions.
" all of my budget toting Dell friends want mine"
I have a Compal CL-56. 5 hour battery life *and* the same graphics power (Mobility Radeon 9700) as your A-51m.
Oh, and I paid $1400 for it. Probably a fair bit less than your overpriced Alienware.
"First, no, the exit polls do not suggest that. They perfectly mirror the results."
That's because CNN "adjusted" the exit poll results after the official results were in.
Recent versions of Outlook (2000 SP1 and beyond) and Outlook Express (IE SP1 and beyond) display emails in the restricted sites zone. Neither ActiveX nor Javascript are allowed to execute in the restricted sites zone.
This also doesn't affect anyone using SP2 either.
Move along, another already patched Microsoft vulnerability.
"Througout history many citizens have voted for the strong commander to miraculously lead them out of the trouble and a lot of the times it has only brought the into more problems. (To avoid long flamewars I will avoid naming any specific country and leave that to the historicans.)"
Hitler in Germany.
"Strange. In the UK at least, we count all the votes before working out who has won"
We do that here too. Remember that Kerry conceding has no legal meaning. It simply means that he acknowledges the (still unofficial, but certain) victory of the President. It also means that neither Kerry nor Bush will engage in a long legal battle to attempt to win the election.
What the grandparent is referring to *is* anticompetitive behavior.
Apple has a near monopoly on digital music players, and they have used this monopoly to take over the music sales business.
They *are* cutting off the oxygen supply of other MP3 companies. They *are* trying to kill the competition.
The Apple iPod only (not counting 3rd party hacks) works with iTunes, and iTunes only works with the iTunes music store.
If you buy tracks from the iTunes music store, you have to load them onto the iPod with iTunes. If you buy an iPod, you have to buy your music with iTunes.
And don't give me that "well you can burn it to CD" crap - how many consumers are really going to burn their tracks to CD and re-rip them to put them on their portable player.
Windows Media *is* the open system.
Yes, it is proprietary.
I can buy a Napster media player (the Samsung) or any one of over 100 players from more than 10 companies, I can download music from the store of my choice (Napster, Wal-Mart, MSN, MusicNow, MusicMatch, or others), I can use their client software or Windows Media Player.
That is choice. I can choose my player, who I buy my music from, and what software I use to play it.
Apple doesn't offer that choice. You either have to go Apple 100% of the way or you don't go Apple at all. Hell, they sued Real for trying to make a compatible system.
That is anticompetitive. If Microsoft released a media player that only worked with MSN Music, people would be up in arms.
Yet when Apple does it, it's somehow different.
Face it: Apple's pulling a Microsoft.
"Anything lower is ridiculous and not even worth considering."
That's why you have 100mbit.
EVERYONE with cable internet in the US could have 39mbps access TOMORROW. The modem supports it and the headend supports it.
It's not an infastructure problem at all. The cable companies could simply "flip the switch" and offer 39mbit access. Now, they might have to upgrade their backend or add more trancievers to prevent massive oversubscription, but they could do it.
There is a reason that my cable modem is 3mbps. It's because people don't DEMAND 10mbit. If people started demanding 20mbps access, it would arrive. Most people, however, are perfectly happy with 3mbps.
I'm perfectly happy with 3mbps. The latency is very good (8ms to the gateway, 35ms to Google) and there is enough bandwidth that sites load quickly.
The only time when you can really USE more than 5mbits is when you are transferring large (20mb+) files. Most people in the US don't do that very often. Hell, even a DVD-quality movie downloads in 45 minutes on a 3mbps connection.
Now, I wish I had 25mbps access. But most of the people with 3mbps cable LOVE the service. They think it is plenty fast already. That's why it won't get any faster.
"The hassle of having to reactivate my hardware when I changed things really bugged me."
It's three mouse clicks, or, if you change your hardware *a lot*, it's a two-minute call to Microsoft.
You have to change at least 3 of the ten things that Windows monitors to need to reactivate. HDDs, CPUs, and NICs generally count. GPUs, PCI add-on cards, USB devices, optical drives, and most other things don't.
"get asked stupid questions in order to prove I had a real copy"
They ask three questions. I know because I've gone through the procedure many times:
1: Is this the first time you've activated Windows (say no)
2: May I ask why you are reactivating Windows (say a virus)
3: How many computers is this copy of Windows installed on (say one)
They then give you your activation key.
Hold times are short, they're open 24/7, and their call center has some of the best fake-texan accents I've heard.
"I have noticed that even with Windows XP on brand-new hardware, running one computationally-intensive program in the background (for example, a compiler) slows down the responsiveness of the UI to the point where it is practically unusable."
CPU usage doesn't seem to hurt my XP system. I/O usage, however, does kill the performance of a Windows system. This is a known problem.
"Windows XP does feel amazingly sluggish compared to Mac OS X."
That's amazing, because I have found XP to be more responsive than *any* other OS. Perhaps that's because Firefox launches 2x as fast on my desktop than it does on the dual 2GHz G5s at my workplace. Or, perhaps it's because Word starts up almost instantly.
XP does sometimes feel sluggish when the CPU is swamped, but that's because explorer runs some processes (autocomplete is an example) at the lowest priority.
Also remember that some processes on XP set themselves to highest priority automatically.
You might also try a system with Hyperthreading. It really helps out when the CPU is swamped.
"if I minimise a program, there are THREE different places it can go."
No, there is one. Windows always sends minimized programs to the taskbar. If an application is minimizing to the system tray, it is because the application developer has designed the application explicitly to work around the default behavior.
"or it can be minimised to one of the application launch buttons on the panels"
Windows doesn't have a "panel", nor does it have "application launch buttons". If explorer.exe is not running, applications will minimize to a mini-window (ala 3.11) but this is not a normal condition users will encounter.
"Windows usability is SERIOUSLY overrated, get over it."
Why should I get over anything? I administer IT for my company and I can tell you that there is NOTHING that compares to the power and flexibility of Active Directory. Not LDAP/Linux, not OS X.
Whenever I say that I like AD because I can do this or that, some Linux or OS X user always chimes in and tells me that they could write a shell script to do it. They are missing the point. I don't have to write a shell script.
The next time you want to extole the virtues of KDE's usability, show a new user the Control Center. Or the Konqueror menu bar.
There is a reason that even the Linux zealots in my company have a Windows box on their desktop. We have IMAP, but they choose to use Outlook. Why? Because it's the best tool for the job.
Don't piss all over Windows until you've deployed it in a corporate environment. XP SP2 is not Windows 95.
As of SP2, RPC no longer allows external access. UPNP and file sharing now only accept connections on the local subnet. The firewall is on by default and it blocks almost all incoming connections.
XP SP2 is a different OS from the one released in 2001. It's time to start recognizing that.
Oh, and a preemptive attack on the "Apache is more popular and it's more secure than IIS":
IIS6 has 2 announced security veulnarabilities since its release over a year ago. Apache2 has more than 20 in the same period, not counting OpenSSL veulnerabilities.
You're as bad as those jerks who pop up dialogs telling me to turn off Javascript - or the websites that went "dark" to protest software patents in Europe.
IE users are bombarded with "your computer is insecure" popups that meerly link to spyware. Most users don't trust these ads (hell, we taught them not to) and associating Firefox with such crap will only be harmful when they hear about it later.
The best thing you could do would be to write a text ad (ala Google) at the top of the page if the user is running IE. Don't be insulting, and don't tell them that their computer has a problem.
How about this:
"Mozilla Firefox - The free, secure browser that blocks spyware and popups."
If you want to get your messege accross, don't do it by annoying your users.
The Firefox msi is OK, but if you are in a medium to large company you will want to roll your own.
- Download Firefox 1.0
- Install it
- Configure it how you like it (homepage, themes, bookmarks)
- Move your profile directory (in your home directory) to the defaults directory for Mozilla
- Use advanced installer to pack it into a msi
That way, you can set up Firefox with bookmarks for all your company homepages and with a skin (my favorite is qute) that integrates well with XP.