The Nero backup software also has the advantage that if you turn off the compression option, the actualy files are burnt as a standard filesystem, so in emergency you can still get at them without the backup software installed.
The problem with a strict lock-out policy is that it leaves you vulnerable to a denial-of-service attack. All an attacker needs to do is guess your password a few times to cause a lot of trouble.
With the new cards in the GeForce series you have expensive requirements like massive power supplies extra slots, high-end cooling, and you need to not mind the dustbuster sound coming from your machine.
That is certainly true for the 6800 Ultra, but the 6800GT is single slot and has reasonable power and cooling requirements. What struck me in the benchmarks is how well the GT version performs.
There is the problem though that at least in the UK where I am, the 6800GT is pretty much unavailable, whereas the X800Pro is available.
I commonly unzip large (800MB) files to NTFS partitions. These files often end up with thousands of fragments (I think the worst I've seen was something like 17000 fragments).
If you take a copy of the file, then the copy will not be significantly fragmented.
This seems to be worse in 2000, as the 2000 built-in defragmenter doesn't seem to make any attempt to defragment the free space.
A quick note: DVD-RAM doesn't have to be in a cartridge any more. In fact the current LG drives won't physically accept discs in cartridges.
It does seem to be dying as a standard, which is actually a bit of a pity. Although the discs are expensive, DVD-RAM really is much easier to use than the other formats. Unlike the other formats, it genuinely does work like a (slow) removable hard drive. You can even format them with ext2 under linux, and they will simply work.
I agree that the compatibility issues can be confusing.
However, support for the different formats can be useful as they do all have different capabilities.
I've recently got an LG 4081B drive, which while not perfect will write to all of the current formats (except for DVD-RAM discs in cartridges).
In general use, I have found myself actually using most of the formats.
For instance DVD-R and DVD+R are cheap and convenient for archiving. DVD+RW is good for packet writing (as it has background formatting). DVD-RAM is great for when you just want to write some files to a disc and don't want any trouble. I've not really used DVD-RW, but that might change depending on what the media costs are. I still use CD-R and CD-RW when storing small quantities of data.
I still use an old Psion 5mx as a PDA. It has a pretty similar form-factor.
In most ways it sounds like the FlipStart would
be an ideal upgrade. However, the 5mx has a touch screen which does actually help a lot, and I suspect I would find myself being irritated by this limitation of the FlipStart.
Firewalls certainly help, but there still
may be vulnerabilities that can affect
firewalled systems. For instance, if a
vulnerability were to be found in QuickTime
then viewing a malicious movie could
compromise even a firewalled system.
Of course, Windows is much more susceptible
to this kind of thing with IE becoming ever more
integrated into the OS.
If you are using something like Mozilla
as your browser, you can keep old systems
going for longer by upgrading the browser
separately. However, even then there may
come a time when the latest browser versions
won't run on the old OS without lots of
effort.
I really don't forsee a day when my 15" G4 iMac will be obsolete.
Except of course there will come a day
when the latest MacOS won't run on it, and
security fixes are not available for the
old OS.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not particularly
complaining about Apple here (Microsoft systems
have even more problems here). I'm just
pointing out that as internet connectivity
becomes more of an essential feature it
becomes harder to keep old systems going
and still secure.
Do remember that the UK price includes the 17.5%
UK sales tax, which makes a large difference.
Of course, it is still much more expensive, but
not by as large a margin as it might seem.
However, there are some really messed up things
with Apple's pricing. For instance, PowerBook 12in
RAM upgrade to 768MB costs 230 pounds, but the same
upgrade from the Accessories store costs 160
(and the equivalent chip from crucial is less than 90).
Actually, the marketing for flash cards
is much more misleading than for hard disks.
The flash cards are sold with power-of-two
nominal sizes (like the 256MB example you
give). This misleads the buyer into thinking
that the sizes are like RAM, and based on
2^20 sized megabytes.
However, they actually use the smaller
10^6 sizes.
No, it doesn't behave in the same way with
NOEXTERNALDATA specified. In particular, note
that it says that it will not provide the
value of the PARAM element, so you can't use
this to access external data from your plugin.
Now, if you were to plug in a USB 2.0 hub into your USB 2.0 port, then dangle a USB 1.1 device off of it, it will, without a doubt, slow that USB 2.0 bus down to 1.1 speeds.
Period.
The above is totally incorrect. USB 2.0 hubs
are considerably more intelligent than USB 1.0
hubs, and can insert the slower USB 1.0 signals
into the USB 2.0 data.
Lucasarts have done Windows ports
of many of the old games.
I just picked up (in the UK) a box
set with Sam and Max, Full Throttle,
The Dig and Grim Fandango.
The first three which were DOS games now
have DirectX Windows versions which seem
to work flawlessly on WinXP.
Now I just need to find a new version
of Day of the Tentacle.:)
I'd like to be able to buy unencumbered MP3's of all the bands in the universe, but it simply won't happen in the current business climate.
Online, yes. However, for most bands there
is nothing to stop you buying the CD and
ripping the tracks to unencumbered mp3.
I'm still a bit baffled about why the labels
are so insistent on DRM for online purchases. If
they have released a CD (not counting the
ineffective copy-controlled CDs), then there
will already be ripped copies floating around.
Surely allowing unrestricted downloads by
people who actually want to give them
money is a good idea?
The situation is indeed quite like the
DVD region issue. However, that doesn't
mean that it is OK. Many people are very
unhappy with DVD regioning.
So far music has largely been free
of regioning (CDs are not region coded
and I don't think SACD or DVD Audio
are either). This is a backward step
by Apple.
It will be interesting to see what the
range of this is. If it is sufficiently large
it should make home automation networks
much easier to do.
You would string ethernet everywhere
and then would be able to add sensors,
switches etc. without having to get power
to them by another route.
Microcontrollers with embedded ethernet
are now pretty cheap (and small). The home
automation network could then use the same
wiring as the home computing netwoek.
However, those rules don't seem to prohibit
adding a correlation between elements in
losing outcomes, so that it looks like you
are closer to a winning outcome. As long
as the overall probability for each symbol
is not changed then it seems to be allowed.
If a worm can run code to turn on id features then it can almost certainly do far worse things (such as installing an email relay).
The addition of Palladium by itself doesn't
make the problem of malicious code doing things
the user doesn't want any worse. In fact, the
addition of code signing might help stop users
running every random executable that they get
emailed.;)
Of course, almost all of the positive features
touted for Palladium could be done without any
additional hardware just by fixing the OS to
be more secure. The additional hardware is only
really needed to help with DRM.
Xserve is a good first effort, but is lacking some key features (like hardware RAID), and there is simply nowhere to go with Apple if an Xserve isn't powerful enough.
In case people have not noticed, Apple have
just introduced the Xserve RAID which does look quite a nice piece of
kit. It's still ATA based, but is in hardware.
The problem with most PC soundcards, including
the Extigy that you link to, is that very few
can operate internally at 44.1KHz. This means
that for CDs you inevitably get some sound
quality loss due to the sample rate conversion.
What is particularly irritating is that almost
none of them support 44.1KHz digital out, so
you can't even use a good external DAC.
Slashdot Mirror
The Nero backup software also has the advantage that if you turn off the compression option, the actualy files are burnt as a standard filesystem, so in emergency you can still get at them without the backup software installed.
The problem with a strict lock-out policy is that it leaves you vulnerable to a denial-of-service attack. All an attacker needs to do is guess your password a few times to cause a lot of trouble.
With the new cards in the GeForce series you have expensive requirements like massive power supplies extra slots, high-end cooling, and you need to not mind the dustbuster sound coming from your machine.
That is certainly true for the 6800 Ultra, but the 6800GT is single slot and has reasonable power and cooling requirements. What struck me in the benchmarks is how well the GT version performs.
There is the problem though that at least in the UK where I am, the 6800GT is pretty much unavailable, whereas the X800Pro is available.
Quoting from the page you link to:
"Protected WMA files cannot be converted.
So, no, you can't play them on an iPod.
I've often run into this at work using 2000.
I commonly unzip large (800MB) files to NTFS partitions. These files often end up with thousands of fragments (I think the worst I've seen was something like 17000 fragments).
If you take a copy of the file, then the copy will not be significantly fragmented.
This seems to be worse in 2000, as the 2000 built-in defragmenter doesn't seem to make any attempt to defragment the free space.
A quick note: DVD-RAM doesn't have to be in a cartridge any more. In fact the current LG drives won't physically accept discs in cartridges.
It does seem to be dying as a standard, which is actually a bit of a pity. Although the discs are expensive, DVD-RAM really is much easier to use than the other formats. Unlike the other formats, it genuinely does work like a (slow) removable hard drive. You can even format them with ext2 under linux, and they will simply work.
I agree that the compatibility issues can be confusing.
However, support for the different formats can be useful as they do all have different capabilities.
I've recently got an LG 4081B drive, which while not perfect will write to all of the current formats (except for DVD-RAM discs in cartridges).
In general use, I have found myself actually using most of the formats.
For instance DVD-R and DVD+R are cheap and convenient for archiving. DVD+RW is good for packet writing (as it has background formatting). DVD-RAM is great for when you just want to write some files to a disc and don't want any trouble. I've not really used DVD-RW, but that might change depending on what the media costs are. I still use CD-R and CD-RW when storing small quantities of data.
I think you mean the Free Software Foundation, not the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
I still use an old Psion 5mx as a PDA. It has a pretty similar form-factor.
In most ways it sounds like the FlipStart would be an ideal upgrade. However, the 5mx has a touch screen which does actually help a lot, and I suspect I would find myself being irritated by this limitation of the FlipStart.
Firewalls certainly help, but there still may be vulnerabilities that can affect firewalled systems. For instance, if a vulnerability were to be found in QuickTime then viewing a malicious movie could compromise even a firewalled system.
Of course, Windows is much more susceptible to this kind of thing with IE becoming ever more integrated into the OS.
If you are using something like Mozilla as your browser, you can keep old systems going for longer by upgrading the browser separately. However, even then there may come a time when the latest browser versions won't run on the old OS without lots of effort.
I really don't forsee a day when my 15" G4 iMac will be obsolete.
Except of course there will come a day when the latest MacOS won't run on it, and security fixes are not available for the old OS.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not particularly complaining about Apple here (Microsoft systems have even more problems here). I'm just pointing out that as internet connectivity becomes more of an essential feature it becomes harder to keep old systems going and still secure.
Of course, it is still much more expensive, but not by as large a margin as it might seem.
However, there are some really messed up things with Apple's pricing. For instance, PowerBook 12in RAM upgrade to 768MB costs 230 pounds, but the same upgrade from the Accessories store costs 160 (and the equivalent chip from crucial is less than 90).
Actually, the marketing for flash cards is much more misleading than for hard disks.
The flash cards are sold with power-of-two nominal sizes (like the 256MB example you give). This misleads the buyer into thinking that the sizes are like RAM, and based on 2^20 sized megabytes.
However, they actually use the smaller 10^6 sizes.
No, it doesn't behave in the same way with NOEXTERNALDATA specified. In particular, note that it says that it will not provide the value of the PARAM element, so you can't use this to access external data from your plugin.
Now, if you were to plug in a USB 2.0 hub into your USB 2.0 port, then dangle a USB 1.1 device off of it, it will, without a doubt, slow that USB 2.0 bus down to 1.1 speeds.
Period.
The above is totally incorrect. USB 2.0 hubs are considerably more intelligent than USB 1.0 hubs, and can insert the slower USB 1.0 signals into the USB 2.0 data.
For more on this, see the Tom's Hardware review of USB 2.0 hubs.
Lucasarts have done Windows ports of many of the old games.
I just picked up (in the UK) a box set with Sam and Max, Full Throttle, The Dig and Grim Fandango. The first three which were DOS games now have DirectX Windows versions which seem to work flawlessly on WinXP.
Now I just need to find a new version of Day of the Tentacle. :)
I'd like to be able to buy unencumbered MP3's of all the bands in the universe, but it simply won't happen in the current business climate.
Online, yes. However, for most bands there is nothing to stop you buying the CD and ripping the tracks to unencumbered mp3.
I'm still a bit baffled about why the labels are so insistent on DRM for online purchases. If they have released a CD (not counting the ineffective copy-controlled CDs), then there will already be ripped copies floating around. Surely allowing unrestricted downloads by people who actually want to give them money is a good idea?
The situation is indeed quite like the DVD region issue. However, that doesn't mean that it is OK. Many people are very unhappy with DVD regioning.
So far music has largely been free of regioning (CDs are not region coded and I don't think SACD or DVD Audio are either). This is a backward step by Apple.
It will be interesting to see what the range of this is. If it is sufficiently large it should make home automation networks much easier to do.
You would string ethernet everywhere and then would be able to add sensors, switches etc. without having to get power to them by another route.
Microcontrollers with embedded ethernet are now pretty cheap (and small). The home automation network could then use the same wiring as the home computing netwoek.
It's actually not as bad a rip off in the UK as many electronic goods are.
$2,999 is around £1800. If you add the UK sales tax (which is included on the apple site), this is £2115. Still less than £2299, but within 10%.
However, those rules don't seem to prohibit adding a correlation between elements in losing outcomes, so that it looks like you are closer to a winning outcome. As long as the overall probability for each symbol is not changed then it seems to be allowed.
If a worm can run code to turn on id features then it can almost certainly do far worse things (such as installing an email relay).
The addition of Palladium by itself doesn't make the problem of malicious code doing things the user doesn't want any worse. In fact, the addition of code signing might help stop users running every random executable that they get emailed. ;)
Of course, almost all of the positive features touted for Palladium could be done without any additional hardware just by fixing the OS to be more secure. The additional hardware is only really needed to help with DRM.
This would for instance allow you to produce a map after a holiday showing where you went.
In case people have not noticed, Apple have just introduced the Xserve RAID which does look quite a nice piece of kit. It's still ATA based, but is in hardware.
What is particularly irritating is that almost none of them support 44.1KHz digital out, so you can't even use a good external DAC.