The only way to really force the issue is to actually move large chunks of vital game code to the server, and only provide the output of that code to the client.
Or, how about simply not permitting save games to exist anywhere but on the server?
As part of the "checking DRM" activity, it uploads the current game state to the server, effectively "saving" your progress.
When you log in again, it grabs the game state into memory and resumes from there.
Hacked games that run without internet connectivity can work just fine. Just you lose the ability to save and load your game.
The only real way around this is to either run a local authentication server (difficult if you use asymmetric keys), or use a debugger to save/restore the entire memory footprint - in which case your game saves start averaging around the 500+MB mark. Which can be worked around by making the application un-debuggable (there are APIs in Windows to prevent attaching a debugger), at which point you need a second computer to hook into the Windows kernel debugger to reset those attributes...
Seeing zero reporting on this in the media (apart from the excellent interviews professor Geist linked on his blog). Big media all for this. The majority of "big media" business models are based on artificial scarcity
Over a year and a half back, our daily (paid) newspapers actually mentioned it.
The article was called "Is your iPod breaking the law?". Made the front page of one of them too, with a big iPod in a "prohibited" sign. (And to most laypeople, ACTA is an anti-TiVo, anti-iPod, anti-VCR deal, which is really the way to get awareness. If you call it an "anti-piracy" bill, people are for it, but they don't know the details.). Even Geist called it at one point an "iPod Bill".
Why store a RAID array? Your data set isn't too big (2-3TB should fit nicely into a couple of today's 2TB hard drives), so it seems somewhat roundabout to store the array itself. Tarball it up and if the compression can squeeze it onto a 2TB hard disk, then you're golden. If not, use split to break it up. Then handle the tarball like any other file. Restoring is just as easy and if you use split, the opposite is our friend cat.
Store the array for instant access, but use the hard drives (you'll make copies) as medium term backups. If you need long term storage, then go with tape.
And I'm sure by the end of the year, you can just use one hard disk for your entire dataset backup. Which means you can duplicate it multiple times for safety. And just plug it into any Linux PC and access it immediately without having to reinitialize the array.
I think it is in the console companies' best interest to not allow competition with PC players, not due to portability but due to competition. Mice are a humongous advantage, and would cause competitive players to flock to the platform with the higher skill ceiling (PCs).
As cool as it would be seeing Xboxers rage about mice, not gonna happen.
MOre likely, it'll result in people flocking to whichever platform they can glitch best to get an advantage.
That's the real problem - Xbox360 has different graphical strengths compared against the PS3 (I think one is fillrate limited, the other is triangles or something), and PCs don't really lack either. Still, it's possible that each has a framerate drop at different points, which can result in an advantage. Or graphical glitches.
Or, if the PC version offers advantages that can be distinctly unfair, like those with big high-res setups able to see more of a scene at any one time. 2000-pixel tall/7000-pixel wide setups are going to be common on PCs with the likes of ATI's Eyefinity (1tall/3wide recommended, but 2tall/3wide has been demonstrated).
It's really hard to ensure a level playing field. Even if you ensure that your game on a PC can only work with a controller or controller-like setups, the graphical differences can make or break it.
I really wish prices dropped on these things. I know they have come a long way since they were first released, but still... my Dell Mini 9 hungers for a storage upgrade, but the price per GB is still insane.
Blame Moore's Law, really. After all, SSDs grow in space in accordance with Moore's Law (since doubling transistors doubles storage capacity - SLC or MLC flash). Spinning disk technology however has been growing at a far faster rate. And controller technology is improving, but there's still room for improvement. Especially since each new technology node requires new billion-dollar investments in new equipment, while I'm sure with the classical spinning disk a lot of parts get reused.
No, I am suggesting that person or group A developed a hardware clock that stores a set of values as binary-coded decimals, and person or group B, probably at an entirely different company, wrote firmware to read those values as binary numbers without verifying whether that was the correct format. Either someone didn't document it, or someone else didn't read the documentation.
Most likely cause. I've dealt with many RTC chips, and the ones that have standard second/minute/hour/day/month/year type registers have so far all been in BCD. The ones that aren't typically store date/time in another format, most common I've seen is seconds since an epoch, or number of days/number of seconds in day.
Hardware RTC typically offers the full date storage (and thus BCD). SoC RTC chips (or the ones in companion chips) usually do the seconds or days/seconds thing (in which case, one should really use their OS library to do date handling... which would've prevented the Zune issue a couple of years back). And usually they're quite good about it - seconds/minutes/hours/day/month/year are either all binary, or all BCD.
Hell, these chips handle leapyears as well, though most only do the "if year is multiple of 4" rule, not the full proper rule (year is multiple of 4, but not of 100, unless it's also a multiple of 400).
Unless I'm reading wrong, this *is* PCI-Express all right, just a different physical interface with an additional (most likely optional) lane and some new, fancy I/O lines.
But why USB 2.0? That would be a perfect place to include 3.0, wouldn't it?
Most likely ease of implementation. miniPCIe (and Expresscard) all bright out a x1 PCIe and USB2.0 to the connector. Since this form is likely to be used in embedded devices, USB2.0 is far more common than USB3.0 will be. Mandating USB3.0 means that part won't be implemented properly, while USB2.0 can be implemented now.
Most cheap ExpressCards and miniPCIe devices (WWAN modems, card readers, Bluetooth) tend ot use the USB side. More advanced devices (SSDs, WiFi) use the PCIe side. That's what allows the Kindle and Nook to have miniPCIe slots that don't really have the PCIe lines hooked up - just the USB ones.
And I'm not sure those FeaturePack cards are going to be really interchangable if those I/O lines are user-defined. Heck, it probably is going to be the other way around - the card is the CPU board (RAM/CPU/Flash/etc) while the main board itself holds the rest of the peripherals...
If you're curious, here's some info on the magnetic declination in Canada. Scroll down for images. Last time I checked there was a significant change in declination from one year to the next. Government of Canada
When I started learning to fly, I saw the effect of the change when all of a sudden we had to use the new variation (and it became something that people checked you on). And some runways had to be remarked because the change in variation changed their runway numbers.
Once you hit the territories, everything is done with respect to true north - magnetic compasses are just too unreliable. Easier nowadays with GPS, but still.
My iPhone's screen shattered when it fell less than 3 feet from my bed and apple wanted $200 +tax to fix it. I talked them down to $100 but the fact that it took them less than 10 minutes to fix still left me feeling a bit taken advantage of.
They didn't replace the screen. They just gave you a replacement.
Check out iFixit to determine how to replace the screen - it's very difficult and prone to breaking something. Instead, it's just like the iPod - they give the customer a refurb unit, then send the bad ones off to be recycled into more refurb units. If you look carefully, the scratches would be different.
The other work is transferring the activation information so the new iPhone's serial number is on your account, but that just takes a couple minute's worth of work.
Otherwise, if you have an original iPhone, and it fails under AppleCare, they won't give you a new 3GS. They have a stock of all the iPhones for replacement, even the ones you can't get anymore (e.g., 16GB 3G, original 2G). NO free upgrades.
Which is why I don't like push-button ignition. If my car ever goes into hyperdrive because of a stuck throttle, I take comfort in knowing I still have a kill switch, and I grew up driving tractors and cars without power steering or power-assist braking, so I can cope.
How can I trust that that push-button ignition will still shut off the car? I know it's conceivable that even a key-start ignition might turn all ignition control over to an ECM, but who's done that?
Well, if the car is accellerating out of control, one would hope that you would hit the brake first - the brake being far more powerful than the engine. Once you're stopped, you can then hunt for a way to turn off the engine.
As for those who think the parking brake isn't strong, it is. Just that you never engage it all the way so the engine can overcome it. You can really engage the parking brake so you can't move, but that requires pulling the lever or pushing the parking pedal far more than you normally do. You normally jerk it until it stops. It can go far more.
Also, the brake is fully mechanical (and hydraulic). The worst the car can do is activate ABS. This fix lets the engine cut out if you hit the brake and the ECU thinks the gas is still depressed. This is the "emergency stop" function. Even if the engine is overrevving and you're stopped, the worst that happens is you destroy the drivetrain, but you're safely stopped.
Ditto things like power windows and door locks - the ECU doesn't actually control the locks and windows, but it can send up/down and lock/unlock signals to the switch, which is wired to the door locks and windows. The switch takes precedence.
1) Legally, they're protected. Read your cardholder agreement and any agreements you have regarding online banking. Even the ones that claim "Zero Liability". At the very least, you need to have a PC with latest updates (OK), antivirus/antispyware software (there goes OS X, Linux and smartphones) with latest updates, approved browser and version (see a website...) and other junk. Oh, and if you access your account from any unapproved machine practically ever, poof. No bank liability.
2) Exactly. Look at 3DS (Verified by Visa/Mastercard SecureCode). Even Chip & PIN has stupid vulnerabilities. And many banks use "Wish it was two factor" (http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/WishItWas-TwoFactor-.aspx) security that pretends to be two-factor, but is barely another password.
Banks don't care, because they can weasel out of any "protection" they offer. And half the "protection" they offer really just shifts liability back to you.
The XEL-1 stopped being sold in Canada a LONG time ago. About 6 months ago, I saw a blow out on the display model (I seriously considered it - $1000 made it tempting), and the Sony Store online only had it as "In store only" - you couldn't buy it online.
The big problem was its resolution, at quarter full-HD (960x540), all you could do was watch SD video scaled up a little bit. Or high-def video scaled down to just-a-little-better-than-SDTV.
The other problem was the videos they displayed on it had horrible flickering. It was worse than a 60Hz CRT monitor.
From what I've heard, the ones who bought it were CEO types who wanted a little nifty TV display. Though these days you can LCD picture frames with higher resolution, and either USB monitor support, or HDMI inputs so you could use it as a TV.
I suspect that most drives we're seeing are too full of compromises to unlock the real potential of flash storage. Manufacturers are sticking to 'safe' markets and form factors. For example, they all seem to target the 2.5" laptop drive market, so all the SSD controllers I've seen so far are all very low power (~1W), which seriously limits their performance. Also, very few drives use PCI-e natively as a bus, most consumer PCI-e SSDs are actually four SATA SSDs attached to a generic SATA RAID card, which is just... sad. It's also telling that it's a factor of two cheaper to just go and buy four SSDs and RAID them using an off-the-shelf RAID controller! (*)
You can get SSDs in standard drive form factors, as well as PCIe.
Hell, Asus had a laptop with 2PCIe SSDs, Acer had one too. The Eee 700, 900, 901 used a miniPCIe SSD. The SSD versins of the Acer Aspire One used a mini PCIe SSD as well.
These aren't PCIe controllers attached to a SATA SSD, either, but native SSDs that behaved as a mass storage controller. They react as if they were SATA disks to make BIOS boot simple and require no drivers to work.
FusionIO devices are great, but I don't know why they don't simulate a standard mass storage controller so you can boot from them. Either a standard mass storage controller SATA emulation, or with a BIOS option ROM to allow booting.
When Star Craft was first released Most people had dialup Internet. LAN Parties popularity wasn't as much about people getting together Although it was a big benefit, But to Play without massive Lag... Today with most people having high speed internet Lag isn't an issue. So you can still have you "Lan" Party but you will need to connect to the Internet and back out... Really no big deal with wireless. But for the most case the need for LAN parties isn't really that big anymore.
Depending on the platform, it can be quite annoying. The PS3 and Xbox360 adapt to whatever router you have and figure out how best to do multiplayer (though there are several configurations where multiplayer either isn't available, or limited to those who have more "open" connections).
PC games tend not to have such luxuries for whatever reason, and still insist on people opening and forwarding particular ports (usually just 2 or so, rather than the 16 or 32 a game used to have just a decade ago). Problem is, you can't really forward a port more than once. Do it especially wrong and only one person can play per IP address (and blah blah IPv6 will solve this - not if the ISP only routes one or two IPs out of the/48 or whatver you get to you).
Do the networking right, and you can have local LAN play, but also local LAN plus WAN play (with each WAN node possibly also having a few LAN players joining in).
And LAN parties do still happen - people get together to play the Wii, and people get together to battle together because it's much more fun to yell to the person you beat when he's in the same room than over a VoIP link. Or has the notion of "friends getting together" gotten passe?
Shouldn't be an issue I think. The CPU and GPU specs have the same level of processing power. Only items removed after launch were the PS2 hardware emulation and a few I/O ports on newer units.
Actually, ALL PS2 emulation was removed. The launch units had a PS2 inside them, the later ones had just one of the parts, while the cheap one lacked it and couldn't do PS2 playback at all. The new slim ones also cannot play PS2 games, and cannot do "OtherOS" (aka Linux). And lack 2 USB ports.
What I want to know is if the PS3 was so forward looking that it can support 3D Blu-Ray, why can't the launch units handle piping Dolby Digital TrueHD/DTS Master Audio over HDMI? They only pass through the DD/DTS core streams, and the only other way is LPCM, but the PS3 only outputs 48kHz (TrueHD/Master Audio can do lossless 192kHz/24bit/7.1 output, and it appears the PS3 really only likes to output 48kHz/7.1...). The new Slims can do TrueHD/Master Audio just fine, though.
To ease the transition, we're investing in interoperability between Windows and other operating systems, reaffirming our commitment to 10 years of support for our non-Windows products, and taking concrete steps to help customers plan for the future.
I'm REALLY confused now. So they are dropping *NIX support, to futher their goal of interoperability? WTF? Can someone explain how these 2 are NOT related?
Easy, they said they drop UNIX (and Linux) support, and will encourage people to migrate to Windows. In the meantime, they will offer support for their Services for Unix product to ease the transition. (SFU is a bunch of services - NFS, NIS, etc that run on Windows - and naturally integrates into Active Directory). It's how you get interoperability between Unix and Windows, with Windows being the "master" of course.
And yet they still don't give a damn about piracy, technologically speaking, or at least they care about it a lot less than they care to annoy homebrewers and importers.
Proof: the last three iterations of Wii System Updates closed exploits used to run homebrew, but an ancient exploit that is still being used for piracy has remained untouched for that long (and counting). More proof: it would be trivial for them to detect and block modchips at the system update level, but so far they haven't even tried. Even more proof: NIntendo seems to be happy deliberately bricking your Wii if you have imported it, but it certainly hasn't even crossed their mind to do that for people who pirate. Yes, System Update 4.2 deliberately bricked all Korean Wiis that had been switched to the USA or EUR region. And by this I mean an explicit if(korean_detected()) { show_error_code_on_boot(003); }.
Not up to date on the homebrew scene? There's a fairly nice set of homebrew programs that let you pirate quite easily - at the very least, you pop in the DVD into the Wii, start the hard drive loader homebrew app, and copy it off to hard disk. Return/rent/repeat, and you'd have a large collection. Even better, *zero* hardware mods needed. Just install homebrew channel, install HD loader, connect a USB hard disk, done.
Ditto - download game off bittorrent, plug drive into PC, use app to copy it over (Wii uses a different filesystem). Poof, game is ready to play.
Legit homebrew is affected purely because of HD loader homebrew that allow it. People don't modchip if they can avoid it.
Very nice of them to allow us to read the spec. Now what about the patents? the rest of the HDMI spec on which this piece depends?
If you can't implement the standard, what good will it do you to be able to read it?
You're supposed to join the HDMI consortium if you want to implement HDMI. It's a non-free group to join, like SD Card Association, Blu-Ray Association, DVD Forum, etc. There are free groups you can join, like the USB Association, PCI (note: specs cost $$$), and many others. Of course, some groups release partial specs (SD card's simplified spec, HDMI group's HDMI 1.3a and 3D 1.4 extract, etc) usually to get more people to join.
It's effectively a tease, meant to show how they're planning on doing 3D video.
On the same note, you can actually get the HDMI 1.3a specs for free now. Members get access to the latest spec, but non-members get access to the earlier ones (because all the competitive advantage is gone, and now it's just enticing other members to join in).
And typically, paying the royalties pays for the patents. Here, paying the HDMI royalties will probably pay for all the licensed bits used for that product.
Google Checkout is faster to setup than PayPal and overall has lower transaction fees. You can setup a store quickly for accepting payment for exactly the type of goods and services you're talking about:
PayPal only remains in the position because of anti-competitive relationship with eBay.
Unless you're a small time seller unable to get a merchant account the normal way, or for one-off payments, or for random non-store style items (e.g., customized quotes). Google Checkout is great if you're a store selling regular retail products. But one-off auction items or other materials tends to be a bit more difficult.
After all, Paypal is horrible. Yet it obviously has a niche that's huge (small time sellers who don't have volume to justify merchant accounts, etc) that no one else seems to want to attempt to enter. Google Checkout is really just another merchant account / credit card processor.
Hell, given the way I've been begged to send money via Paypal instead of using the normal merchant accounts of some sellers I know, I believe Paypal's fees might be lower than a normal merchant account, and/or the money is available much faster through Paypal than their merchant account.
Its unfortunate, yet there really is no competitor.
People have complained for years about the 100 tag limit on friends list and other seemingly stupid limitations put into place. The reasoning offered by MS then was that in order to maintain compatabilty with original xbox games the limitations in the original live service had to follow over to the 360.
MS has decided after 5 years of the 360 to remove the legacy caps by removing support for a platform that hasnt been sold in 5 years. You cant really have it both ways...
Not only that, but the main reason we've stuck with it for 5 years is because of ONE game. Halo 2.
That's practically the only Live game played with a significant audience, and it's been #1 on the original Xbox live games chart for years now.
Now, will Microsoft actually withdraw Halo 2 support? Unlikely - they'll probably have a patch on the 360 so you can play Halo 2 with the "new" Live, probably by sending out a new Halo 2 binary combined with emulator changes. Probably something difficult to do with the original Xbox...
Is the customer informed of this charge before completing the sale? It seems to me that the honest and transparent thing to do would be to add the service fee to the price.
I like to know what I'm paying for, and how much I'm paying for it. I don't think that's unreasonable. Even airlines[1], who are notorious for adding x number of random surcharges to the advertised price give you an itemised breakdown before you commit.
[1] I mean reputable ones, not Sleazyjet or Tryonair.
Problem is, you committed, and a new page comes up saying thanks for your order. With a button saying "Click here to save 10% off this order" (or your next order). The sleazy ones require you to click a tiny "No thanks" link, because closing the window automatically means you accept the offer. The sleazier ones include a discount on your order "Discount - 10%" as a line item. And hide the fact that discount really signs you up for a $20/month service.
It's a great scam because everyone loves discounts.
"As soon as you complete the transaction a pop-up window appears. It offers a discount on your next purchase. Click on the ad...." So this is something that affects only people dumb enough to click on pop-ups, while those of us with either blockers or the brains to close pop-ups like this when they open are not affected? Internet darwinism at work and working as intended imo.
Thanks- I was hoping someone would point this out, and I agree with you. It's sad commentary that today's consumers still don't approach every purchase expecting to get burned. Now, before anyone gets up in arms over that statement, let me explain: I don't agree it *should* be this way, but I know that it *is* this way and protect myself accordingly.
Actually, it can affect you if you don't click the popup too.
It's a major scam, and it's not necessarily a popup.
You click "Continue" on your transaction, and the site summarizes your order. Then instead of a continue button, you have a big button that says "Place order - and get 10% off your next!". What you don't see is hidden in the fine print is a link that says "No thanks - just place my order".
Or, after you place your order, on the thank you page, it'll have a blurb saying "Special offers for your next order" with "Save 10% off your next order!". Hell, the craftier ones put a 10% off discount on your order automatically, and a link hidden at the bottom saying "No, I don't want the discount".
The nastiest ones though are the ones that require no clicking at all - you done your order, you close the browser while inadvertently NOT clicking the "No" link. By closing the window and not declining, you're signed up anyway. Hell, I bet half of them exist in the terms and conditions of sale, and people blindly check the box saying they agree.
Basically, unless you read every word of every screen, it's impossible to not inadvertently do it. It's a huge scam and everyone's hiding behind the fine print. And the fact that people love getting discounts, so a 10% off the next order would be valuable.
And when I send a fax - how do I know if it is printed upside down or not at the receiving end? Not all faxes behaves the same way.
In general, a fax sends data serially left to right, top to bottom. So if the top of the page is sent first (easy on the standalones since the scanner is a line scanner, so the part it reads first is "top"), it should come out the right way.
At least, this is using two dumb faxes with zero storage capability, so the first part of the page read is the first part of the page that comes out.
But if you feed the paper in so the bottom edge is read in first, then it's likely that it'll be upside down.
You can normally rely on the paper orientation logo to tell you which way is "top", but not always (the only thing that it at least does tell you is printed side up or down).
That freewifi one might be a guy who isn't even using wifi. If you've ever hung around airports looking for a wireless signal, there is always somebody broadcasting "Free Wireless Internet" or similar SSIDs in ad-hoc mode. Apparently this is a side effect of how some drivers deal with the situation where they can't find a usable access point. If they see an ad-hoc network, they'll "join" it as well, and then start broadcasting the ad-hoc ssid as their own. Thus, in crowded places where people are using Windows (like airport waiting areas), the Free Wifi bug will spread like a disease. It has been like this for years too.
Actually, it's more of a Windows side effect.
User connects their laptop to "Free Wireless Internet" AP (a real, live accesspoint). User then leaves, and parks butt in another location. Windows again looks for a network with SSID "Free Wireless Internet" as well as doing scans for other networks (ad-hoc or otherwise). Inadvertently, it also broadcasts this as an ad-hoc SSID, so a second user doing a scan sees it and tries to connect. They fail (obviously), but now their laptop will look for an ad-hoc network called "Free Wireless Internet", to which others will try to connect, fail, and broadcast anew ad-hoc network.
It's spread to the point where you can see that SSID everywhere. A viral SSID, effectively.
A bit more Googling will reveal a ton more of same. Of course, it's trivially simple for someone to really do set up a real MITM using tihs viral SSID, so beware.
Slashdot Mirror
Or, how about simply not permitting save games to exist anywhere but on the server?
As part of the "checking DRM" activity, it uploads the current game state to the server, effectively "saving" your progress.
When you log in again, it grabs the game state into memory and resumes from there.
Hacked games that run without internet connectivity can work just fine. Just you lose the ability to save and load your game.
The only real way around this is to either run a local authentication server (difficult if you use asymmetric keys), or use a debugger to save/restore the entire memory footprint - in which case your game saves start averaging around the 500+MB mark. Which can be worked around by making the application un-debuggable (there are APIs in Windows to prevent attaching a debugger), at which point you need a second computer to hook into the Windows kernel debugger to reset those attributes...
Over a year and a half back, our daily (paid) newspapers actually mentioned it.
The article was called "Is your iPod breaking the law?". Made the front page of one of them too, with a big iPod in a "prohibited" sign. (And to most laypeople, ACTA is an anti-TiVo, anti-iPod, anti-VCR deal, which is really the way to get awareness. If you call it an "anti-piracy" bill, people are for it, but they don't know the details.). Even Geist called it at one point an "iPod Bill".
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=4bf7de32-1f51-4629-9721-abef4381b8a4
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/story.html?id=ae997868-220b-4dae-bf4f-47f6fc96ce5e
Why store a RAID array? Your data set isn't too big (2-3TB should fit nicely into a couple of today's 2TB hard drives), so it seems somewhat roundabout to store the array itself. Tarball it up and if the compression can squeeze it onto a 2TB hard disk, then you're golden. If not, use split to break it up. Then handle the tarball like any other file. Restoring is just as easy and if you use split, the opposite is our friend cat.
Store the array for instant access, but use the hard drives (you'll make copies) as medium term backups. If you need long term storage, then go with tape.
And I'm sure by the end of the year, you can just use one hard disk for your entire dataset backup. Which means you can duplicate it multiple times for safety. And just plug it into any Linux PC and access it immediately without having to reinitialize the array.
MOre likely, it'll result in people flocking to whichever platform they can glitch best to get an advantage.
That's the real problem - Xbox360 has different graphical strengths compared against the PS3 (I think one is fillrate limited, the other is triangles or something), and PCs don't really lack either. Still, it's possible that each has a framerate drop at different points, which can result in an advantage. Or graphical glitches.
Or, if the PC version offers advantages that can be distinctly unfair, like those with big high-res setups able to see more of a scene at any one time. 2000-pixel tall/7000-pixel wide setups are going to be common on PCs with the likes of ATI's Eyefinity (1tall/3wide recommended, but 2tall/3wide has been demonstrated).
It's really hard to ensure a level playing field. Even if you ensure that your game on a PC can only work with a controller or controller-like setups, the graphical differences can make or break it.
Blame Moore's Law, really. After all, SSDs grow in space in accordance with Moore's Law (since doubling transistors doubles storage capacity - SLC or MLC flash). Spinning disk technology however has been growing at a far faster rate. And controller technology is improving, but there's still room for improvement. Especially since each new technology node requires new billion-dollar investments in new equipment, while I'm sure with the classical spinning disk a lot of parts get reused.
Most likely cause. I've dealt with many RTC chips, and the ones that have standard second/minute/hour/day/month/year type registers have so far all been in BCD. The ones that aren't typically store date/time in another format, most common I've seen is seconds since an epoch, or number of days/number of seconds in day.
Hardware RTC typically offers the full date storage (and thus BCD). SoC RTC chips (or the ones in companion chips) usually do the seconds or days/seconds thing (in which case, one should really use their OS library to do date handling... which would've prevented the Zune issue a couple of years back). And usually they're quite good about it - seconds/minutes/hours/day/month/year are either all binary, or all BCD.
Hell, these chips handle leapyears as well, though most only do the "if year is multiple of 4" rule, not the full proper rule (year is multiple of 4, but not of 100, unless it's also a multiple of 400).
Most likely ease of implementation. miniPCIe (and Expresscard) all bright out a x1 PCIe and USB2.0 to the connector. Since this form is likely to be used in embedded devices, USB2.0 is far more common than USB3.0 will be. Mandating USB3.0 means that part won't be implemented properly, while USB2.0 can be implemented now.
Most cheap ExpressCards and miniPCIe devices (WWAN modems, card readers, Bluetooth) tend ot use the USB side. More advanced devices (SSDs, WiFi) use the PCIe side. That's what allows the Kindle and Nook to have miniPCIe slots that don't really have the PCIe lines hooked up - just the USB ones.
And I'm not sure those FeaturePack cards are going to be really interchangable if those I/O lines are user-defined. Heck, it probably is going to be the other way around - the card is the CPU board (RAM/CPU/Flash/etc) while the main board itself holds the rest of the peripherals...
When I started learning to fly, I saw the effect of the change when all of a sudden we had to use the new variation (and it became something that people checked you on). And some runways had to be remarked because the change in variation changed their runway numbers.
Once you hit the territories, everything is done with respect to true north - magnetic compasses are just too unreliable. Easier nowadays with GPS, but still.
They didn't replace the screen. They just gave you a replacement.
Check out iFixit to determine how to replace the screen - it's very difficult and prone to breaking something. Instead, it's just like the iPod - they give the customer a refurb unit, then send the bad ones off to be recycled into more refurb units. If you look carefully, the scratches would be different.
The other work is transferring the activation information so the new iPhone's serial number is on your account, but that just takes a couple minute's worth of work.
Otherwise, if you have an original iPhone, and it fails under AppleCare, they won't give you a new 3GS. They have a stock of all the iPhones for replacement, even the ones you can't get anymore (e.g., 16GB 3G, original 2G). NO free upgrades.
Well, if the car is accellerating out of control, one would hope that you would hit the brake first - the brake being far more powerful than the engine. Once you're stopped, you can then hunt for a way to turn off the engine.
As for those who think the parking brake isn't strong, it is. Just that you never engage it all the way so the engine can overcome it. You can really engage the parking brake so you can't move, but that requires pulling the lever or pushing the parking pedal far more than you normally do. You normally jerk it until it stops. It can go far more.
Also, the brake is fully mechanical (and hydraulic). The worst the car can do is activate ABS. This fix lets the engine cut out if you hit the brake and the ECU thinks the gas is still depressed. This is the "emergency stop" function. Even if the engine is overrevving and you're stopped, the worst that happens is you destroy the drivetrain, but you're safely stopped.
Ditto things like power windows and door locks - the ECU doesn't actually control the locks and windows, but it can send up/down and lock/unlock signals to the switch, which is wired to the door locks and windows. The switch takes precedence.
Banks don't care, because they don't have to.
1) Legally, they're protected. Read your cardholder agreement and any agreements you have regarding online banking. Even the ones that claim "Zero Liability". At the very least, you need to have a PC with latest updates (OK), antivirus/antispyware software (there goes OS X, Linux and smartphones) with latest updates, approved browser and version (see a website...) and other junk. Oh, and if you access your account from any unapproved machine practically ever, poof. No bank liability.
2) Exactly. Look at 3DS (Verified by Visa/Mastercard SecureCode). Even Chip & PIN has stupid vulnerabilities. And many banks use "Wish it was two factor" (http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/WishItWas-TwoFactor-.aspx) security that pretends to be two-factor, but is barely another password.
Banks don't care, because they can weasel out of any "protection" they offer. And half the "protection" they offer really just shifts liability back to you.
The XEL-1 stopped being sold in Canada a LONG time ago. About 6 months ago, I saw a blow out on the display model (I seriously considered it - $1000 made it tempting), and the Sony Store online only had it as "In store only" - you couldn't buy it online.
The big problem was its resolution, at quarter full-HD (960x540), all you could do was watch SD video scaled up a little bit. Or high-def video scaled down to just-a-little-better-than-SDTV.
The other problem was the videos they displayed on it had horrible flickering. It was worse than a 60Hz CRT monitor.
From what I've heard, the ones who bought it were CEO types who wanted a little nifty TV display. Though these days you can LCD picture frames with higher resolution, and either USB monitor support, or HDMI inputs so you could use it as a TV.
You can get SSDs in standard drive form factors, as well as PCIe.
Hell, Asus had a laptop with 2PCIe SSDs, Acer had one too. The Eee 700, 900, 901 used a miniPCIe SSD. The SSD versins of the Acer Aspire One used a mini PCIe SSD as well.
These aren't PCIe controllers attached to a SATA SSD, either, but native SSDs that behaved as a mass storage controller. They react as if they were SATA disks to make BIOS boot simple and require no drivers to work.
FusionIO devices are great, but I don't know why they don't simulate a standard mass storage controller so you can boot from them. Either a standard mass storage controller SATA emulation, or with a BIOS option ROM to allow booting.
HD Fury2 is all you need.
HDMI+HDCP to component video converter.
Kinda pricey, but for $250, beats buying a new TV (and equipment).
Depending on the platform, it can be quite annoying. The PS3 and Xbox360 adapt to whatever router you have and figure out how best to do multiplayer (though there are several configurations where multiplayer either isn't available, or limited to those who have more "open" connections).
PC games tend not to have such luxuries for whatever reason, and still insist on people opening and forwarding particular ports (usually just 2 or so, rather than the 16 or 32 a game used to have just a decade ago). Problem is, you can't really forward a port more than once. Do it especially wrong and only one person can play per IP address (and blah blah IPv6 will solve this - not if the ISP only routes one or two IPs out of the /48 or whatver you get to you).
Do the networking right, and you can have local LAN play, but also local LAN plus WAN play (with each WAN node possibly also having a few LAN players joining in).
And LAN parties do still happen - people get together to play the Wii, and people get together to battle together because it's much more fun to yell to the person you beat when he's in the same room than over a VoIP link. Or has the notion of "friends getting together" gotten passe?
Actually, ALL PS2 emulation was removed. The launch units had a PS2 inside them, the later ones had just one of the parts, while the cheap one lacked it and couldn't do PS2 playback at all. The new slim ones also cannot play PS2 games, and cannot do "OtherOS" (aka Linux). And lack 2 USB ports.
What I want to know is if the PS3 was so forward looking that it can support 3D Blu-Ray, why can't the launch units handle piping Dolby Digital TrueHD/DTS Master Audio over HDMI? They only pass through the DD/DTS core streams, and the only other way is LPCM, but the PS3 only outputs 48kHz (TrueHD/Master Audio can do lossless 192kHz/24bit/7.1 output, and it appears the PS3 really only likes to output 48kHz/7.1...). The new Slims can do TrueHD/Master Audio just fine, though.
Easy, they said they drop UNIX (and Linux) support, and will encourage people to migrate to Windows. In the meantime, they will offer support for their Services for Unix product to ease the transition. (SFU is a bunch of services - NFS, NIS, etc that run on Windows - and naturally integrates into Active Directory). It's how you get interoperability between Unix and Windows, with Windows being the "master" of course.
Not up to date on the homebrew scene? There's a fairly nice set of homebrew programs that let you pirate quite easily - at the very least, you pop in the DVD into the Wii, start the hard drive loader homebrew app, and copy it off to hard disk. Return/rent/repeat, and you'd have a large collection. Even better, *zero* hardware mods needed. Just install homebrew channel, install HD loader, connect a USB hard disk, done.
Ditto - download game off bittorrent, plug drive into PC, use app to copy it over (Wii uses a different filesystem). Poof, game is ready to play.
Legit homebrew is affected purely because of HD loader homebrew that allow it. People don't modchip if they can avoid it.
You're supposed to join the HDMI consortium if you want to implement HDMI. It's a non-free group to join, like SD Card Association, Blu-Ray Association, DVD Forum, etc. There are free groups you can join, like the USB Association, PCI (note: specs cost $$$), and many others. Of course, some groups release partial specs (SD card's simplified spec, HDMI group's HDMI 1.3a and 3D 1.4 extract, etc) usually to get more people to join.
It's effectively a tease, meant to show how they're planning on doing 3D video.
On the same note, you can actually get the HDMI 1.3a specs for free now. Members get access to the latest spec, but non-members get access to the earlier ones (because all the competitive advantage is gone, and now it's just enticing other members to join in).
And typically, paying the royalties pays for the patents. Here, paying the HDMI royalties will probably pay for all the licensed bits used for that product.
Unless you're a small time seller unable to get a merchant account the normal way, or for one-off payments, or for random non-store style items (e.g., customized quotes). Google Checkout is great if you're a store selling regular retail products. But one-off auction items or other materials tends to be a bit more difficult.
After all, Paypal is horrible. Yet it obviously has a niche that's huge (small time sellers who don't have volume to justify merchant accounts, etc) that no one else seems to want to attempt to enter. Google Checkout is really just another merchant account / credit card processor.
Hell, given the way I've been begged to send money via Paypal instead of using the normal merchant accounts of some sellers I know, I believe Paypal's fees might be lower than a normal merchant account, and/or the money is available much faster through Paypal than their merchant account.
Its unfortunate, yet there really is no competitor.
Not only that, but the main reason we've stuck with it for 5 years is because of ONE game. Halo 2.
That's practically the only Live game played with a significant audience, and it's been #1 on the original Xbox live games chart for years now.
Now, will Microsoft actually withdraw Halo 2 support? Unlikely - they'll probably have a patch on the 360 so you can play Halo 2 with the "new" Live, probably by sending out a new Halo 2 binary combined with emulator changes. Probably something difficult to do with the original Xbox...
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/59918
Problem is, you committed, and a new page comes up saying thanks for your order. With a button saying "Click here to save 10% off this order" (or your next order). The sleazy ones require you to click a tiny "No thanks" link, because closing the window automatically means you accept the offer. The sleazier ones include a discount on your order "Discount - 10%" as a line item. And hide the fact that discount really signs you up for a $20/month service.
It's a great scam because everyone loves discounts.
Actually, it can affect you if you don't click the popup too.
It's a major scam, and it's not necessarily a popup.
You click "Continue" on your transaction, and the site summarizes your order. Then instead of a continue button, you have a big button that says "Place order - and get 10% off your next!". What you don't see is hidden in the fine print is a link that says "No thanks - just place my order".
Or, after you place your order, on the thank you page, it'll have a blurb saying "Special offers for your next order" with "Save 10% off your next order!". Hell, the craftier ones put a 10% off discount on your order automatically, and a link hidden at the bottom saying "No, I don't want the discount".
The nastiest ones though are the ones that require no clicking at all - you done your order, you close the browser while inadvertently NOT clicking the "No" link. By closing the window and not declining, you're signed up anyway. Hell, I bet half of them exist in the terms and conditions of sale, and people blindly check the box saying they agree.
Basically, unless you read every word of every screen, it's impossible to not inadvertently do it. It's a huge scam and everyone's hiding behind the fine print. And the fact that people love getting discounts, so a 10% off the next order would be valuable.
In general, a fax sends data serially left to right, top to bottom. So if the top of the page is sent first (easy on the standalones since the scanner is a line scanner, so the part it reads first is "top"), it should come out the right way.
At least, this is using two dumb faxes with zero storage capability, so the first part of the page read is the first part of the page that comes out.
But if you feed the paper in so the bottom edge is read in first, then it's likely that it'll be upside down.
You can normally rely on the paper orientation logo to tell you which way is "top", but not always (the only thing that it at least does tell you is printed side up or down).
Actually, it's more of a Windows side effect.
User connects their laptop to "Free Wireless Internet" AP (a real, live accesspoint). User then leaves, and parks butt in another location. Windows again looks for a network with SSID "Free Wireless Internet" as well as doing scans for other networks (ad-hoc or otherwise). Inadvertently, it also broadcasts this as an ad-hoc SSID, so a second user doing a scan sees it and tries to connect. They fail (obviously), but now their laptop will look for an ad-hoc network called "Free Wireless Internet", to which others will try to connect, fail, and broadcast anew ad-hoc network.
It's spread to the point where you can see that SSID everywhere. A viral SSID, effectively.
http://www.wlanbook.com/free-public-wifi-ssid/
http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/archives/2006/09/free_public_wif.html
A bit more Googling will reveal a ton more of same. Of course, it's trivially simple for someone to really do set up a real MITM using tihs viral SSID, so beware.