However I was able to get a nice sensitive B&W camera cheap off of E-Bay and hook up the X10 transmitter to it:-) I then discovered that my B&W camera is IRDA sensitive so one of these days I'm going to get off my butt and build an LED IRDA lightsource for it or possibly a filter for a regular lightsource - just for fun. It's still fairly bulky so trying to hide it might be tough but it "sees" through smoked plastic easily so it could be disguised I guess(shrug).
For now it just sits on my shelf waiting for my time to tinker. All in all it wasn't an expensive purchase and was fun to learn with...
chained together PS2s acting together to display a hi-rez graphics simulation. However during this display they made sure folks knew that the hardware and software used to do this would NOT be released or sold. It was a tech demo - nothing more. However, it does point out that it's possible to do this and if you know something is posisble you're halfway to doing it yourself..
Still, I find the idea that these guys are going to be able to do this pretty amusing. One of the articles I read said they might be able to chain together a pile of these to remotely control a plane! Um yeah, I think they certainly could find a better use than that. Another part of the article claimed that they were having trouble calculating yields of their weapons. Hell, wouldn't bigger just be better?:-)
I've seen the Stereoplastic stuff too - SLOOOW!
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3D Printers
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· Score: 1
I watched an engineering model being built using the older technology where the model dipped into the polymer, got zapped, dipped, etc. etc. I've also seen some of the really weird stuff done with massive numbers of paper "cutouts" pasted together. Great if you want to see if a part will fit but not something you'd actually be able to use in the real world.
Auto manufacturers and others who use castings must love this stuff. Make a CAD model and have it printed out for say flow bench testing before actually spending big bux for a test casting. Heck, make the molds from the plastic!
The one big issue I noticed about this process though was that it was DIRT SLOW! It was also very size limited - at least the resin model I saw was. Want a 2inch toy? No problem, wait a few hours. You'd be old and gray before you could turn out a chess set I swear. Obviously the technology has progressed and I think the idea of using inkjet technology is pretty novel but at what rate can it build an object up? If it's a micron at a time you could be waiting a good long time to build somehing like a cylinder head out of something substantial. I note that they gave no speed benchmarks and that while they mentioned things like axles they didn't give dimensions. I suppose multiple heads would help with the speed issue if you had enough CPU power to run them all.
Hrm, I wonder if we'll have to heat treat things like axles and heads when they're built? Won't this end up being more resource wasteful in the end that massive dedicated manufacturing? As an Automotive nut I can see the advantages of being able to build complex structures in an axle or a cylinder head but.... I do think toys will be the best first outlet for this but they'll have to figure out a way to beat Joe Offshore laborer before it'll be terribly viable IMO.
I don't even own a DVD player on my computer so my use of this has been left to compressing video I've gotten elsewhere. I use Flask to do it and while it takes some tinkering and I still don't 100% understand all of it I DO manage to shrink file sizes and retain quality.
Think of it as PKZip\Tar for video and you can see the potential. I run a modem at home so anything that can be done to shrink file size is a blessing to me!
I've not seen this mentioned and I'm surprised/. didn't make great hay out of this story but...
http://www.pc-help.org/privacy/ms_guid.htm
That I found linked from SecurityFocus.com
Scary stuff, no? And if you block refers AND cookies you CANNOT navigate their sites as it supposedly gets caught into some sort of loop. If you've got cookies turned off they use refers to track you on their site using a GUID set in the URL and then hidden with a redirect! Just turning off cookies isn't good enough anymore! Thankfully for me @Guard can block refers too, a real shame Symantec bought the product and turned it into crap!
Interesting that this came about just as IE was about to introduce tools to block 3rd party cookies isn't it? Create a feature but make sure YOU are immune from it - cute.
Supposedly the Ad Banner folks are really up in arms about this new security feature in IE and are "meeting with MSFT". Gee, what do you think "meeting" means? Little money moving around maybe?
It's been found that 3rd party sites can redirect through the MSFT GUID server and use the GUID just fine - wonder if the ad banners will start doing that now. And you thought being tracked with an SSN was bad?!
Welcome to the 'net - here's your GUID and if you don't accept it you can't go anywhere. Here thought I had to worry about the Congress Critters trying to create some sort of silly Internet License - Microsoft has apparently not waited on them! Let's hope this practice doesn't spread and that bringing this slimy thing to the light of day will make it wither and die...
No, and in fact NO ONE has such a list! Why? Well it seems that this piece of important legislation was voted upon by voice. What does this mean? Apparently that they simply asked everyone who wanted it to say Yea or Nay at the appropriate time. Those who wanted it were more numerous and it passed - but no actual count was taken nor were any names recorded.
Pretty scary huh? I believe this was also voted on upon at an off-hours time but that may be FUD. The important thing to realize here is that OUR representatives must have KNOWN that this was controversial legislation and wanted to make sure that no one knew how each of them voted upon it!
Frankly, that scares the crap out of me. These bastards KNEW that when people began to figure out the ramifications of this that they'd be pissed and wanted to dodge those angry voters - and they did it didn't they?
The public voted down DIVX with their wallets, yes? Guess what - it's coming back only this time we won't have a choice. We'll no longer be able to BUY a piece of media and have rights to what's on that media. Instead we'll be leasing or renting the material on it! Just wait for DVD Audio - I'm quite sure it'll protected and that breaking it will cause all sorts of havoc. Let's just hope that MP3 players that provide large amounts of music per CD get a strong toehold before DVD Audio manages to make it's way to the market place. The only advantage I see to DVD audio right now is play time - lot' of music. If we can get some sort of compressed music player out there first perhaps the DVD Audio won't have as much allure.
Trouble is it's companies like AIWA and Kenwood that are making these players. $600 for the Kenwood and $300 for the AIWA - IF you can find them. Won't surprise m at all if the likes of Sony\Aiwa sabotages getting the MP3 players to market (shiver).
Now you've gone and told everyone how to execute commands on the remote box:-) Yes, this has been an OLD problem for awhile - I find it during security reviews on a regualr basis. Even if they don't run with the Admin account (I've yet to see one setup liek that actually) the account that it DOES run under is powerful enough to do a Net Use and copy over the backup SAM file. RDISK -S- is your friend in this case since so many people never make Rescue disks - you have to do it for them!:-P
I was wondering how long the XP_CMDSHELL thing would remain in the dark once folks figured out that the password was shipped BLANK. Seriously - everyone who neve though to try a blank admin password raise your hands. Good, now smack yourself - that's the first password you always try. Password, SA, and Admin are also good ones for the truly clueless. I can't believe sites in an enviropnment as hostile as the 'net are so stupid as to not set an admin password.
Oh yeah - check out Oracle and Suybase while you're at it. Not much better there folks! Scott\Tiger anyone? That's the least of your worries. Some of those damned accounts are so poorly documented it's no small wonder that they aren't fixed. At least you can't get into a command shell as easily with those two - we've yet to find a command in either of those as powerful as XP_CMDSHELL....
Ads? What ads? I don't see no stinkin' ads!
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Gnutella Vs. SPAM
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· Score: 1
Banner blocking software is a wonderful thing! I don't know what response the sites get back but AtGuard (since sold to Symantec dammit) blocks banners VERY well! It also blocks refers, cookies (instance by instance or site by site), and Java if I desire. It can prevent animated GIF files from looping endlessly too if you don't like the distractions. Last but not least - a nice fairly simple firewall is included. It may not be Fort Knox in the way of firewalls but the banner blocking alone saves me ton's of bandwidth on my crappy modem!
Lot's of banner blocking software out there besides AtGuard - check into it - you'll be very glad you did...
If you're only method for ensuring it's NOT a SPAMMER is to ask the supposed source IP if it's really got a file then this ought to be easy to defeat - yes? Simply cache a list of "real" files on real IPs (not yours of course) and then spit that back out. The verification check would find the file - yes? Perhaps I've missed something here - are they prepending the crap to the file name or is there some form of description that they've screwing with?
Let's jusy hope they don't find another ISP anytime soon!
If I could buy CDs with an emulator ala MAME and a pile of my old time favorite arcade games I'd be all over it! However these things aren't being offered for sale at any price, short of an entire cabinet that likely needs repair, so I do the emulator thing. For that matter I don't even do much more than dabble in MAME simply because tracking down the ROMs, setting it all up, and getting it working is a pain. Put some $$ incentive out for the programmers and it would become MUCH more user friendly I'm sure. And yeah, the Arcade article a couple of days ago got me interested again but I've not yet gotten to try the newer emulators and frontends - but I will:-)
Kripes, give us a choice and make some money - don't just take the choice away!
What happens when they DO decide to go after people selling these things secondhand? What happens when they simply "license" the game, CD, DVD, or operating system to you? Oh yeah - we've started to see that now haven't we? What happens when the flea market gets raided and the LEGIT copies of DVDs get grabbed because the person isn't a "licensed seller"? When will these companies begin trying to set the price on used sales and require that they receive a portion of the profits?
I honestly see this coming if we're not careful and it may even be happening somewhere that I'm ignorant of. The snowball is already rolling downhill - pretty soon this slide will be unstoppable.
Guess it's time to get those ROMs into some of the distributed filesystems out there huh? Oh that's right - the programmers who programmed those could actually find themselves liable now too. Cute....
It had to be said, sadly, it really did. I've used IE for a good long time, Netscape just never "felt" right for me (personal choice). IE has had some flakiness but overall it's worked fine. Meanwhile my SO had used Netscape until it just got to the point where it was so unstable that she had to switch. She's a "user" - she just wants to browse WEB pages not learn the guts of why something's broken. Needless to say IE now works fine for her (sigh). This wasn't dirty pool by Microsoft, they just delivered a product that worked is all.
When Netscape declared they were releasing source code I was actually pretty hopefull. Without competition MS will become complacent just like Netscape did. However, in the time since it was released Netscape has continued to make "point releases" to their old crap and I've yet to hear about any of the Mozilla versions being stable enough to - wow - use!
This is a real shame too. My biggest hope, and one of the reasons MS's IE has done so well was that a componentized version of Netscape would be released. Then products like Quicken, Notes, and a ton of other products wouldn't actually have to write their own browsers. Neat idea huh? So how come IE is the only one that's done it so far? My customer is exclusively Netscape but slowly but surely IE is taking over and getting upgraded on everyone's workstations - the component portion is why. These people like most users don't want to hear the political crap as to why they shoudl or shouldn't use a product - they've got a life and a job to do.
Get with it Netscape, there's a reason you're losing the "browser war" and it's not all just dirty pool by Microsoft. Get off the porch and innovate!
BTW - anyone else read the open letter to Netscape by the standards group that concerns itself with browsers? It would seem IE is more compliant than Netscape these days. Sad huh?
I was hoping someone would mention that "little" bit of extra work! It's not really as easy as just pulling up to McDonalds for a fill. I've read about several folks having problems trying to get the ratios right and learning how to get it right. Ambient temp and other things can make the production of this stuff slightly tricky. Heh, a trolling motor is supposed to be good for stirring it tho':-)
Let's not forget that alcohol has about half the BTUs of gas. You can run higher compression because it's got higher octane but it also doesn't "bang" as well. You'll use more of it to get where you're going. Alcohol attacks the rubber that many fuel systems use too and screws up aluminum parts if you're not careful. Racers know this (ahem). It's a bit rough on the valves as well. Alcohol fires are "interesting" too, just ask any Indy driver who's experienced one!
Natural gas can work but again you've got a shorter range and more frequent fillups due to the volume used. The containers required are heavy or if made of carbon fiber (lighter) they cost a mint. All it will take will be some dork blowing himself up and people will freak over that too.
Want to get mad? Look at the cute additives they stick in during the Winter. Ask the local guys who hop up cars to drive on the street what they think of that fuel. It hoses the systems and the fuel is LESS effecient when that crap is added. During colder months the car should get MORE MPG not less. Why did they add it? To reduce emissions of course. Never mind that MPG dropped noticeably and that we burned more fuel to get "less" emissions.
Don't even get me started on the diminishing returns that systems like OBDII and the future proposed systems have. Some of those proposed systems would even allow roadside monitors to disable your car! Go after a smokestack industries and stop crushing classic cars for kripes sakes! If the Govt. had their way we'd have water coming out of the pipes and pay a million bucks for the cars that do it. Meanwhile big manufacturers will pour crap out of their smokestacks by the ton and crush irreplacable cars in order to "buy" that "right" with "credits".
Yeah, there's lot's to bitch about where all of this is concerned and it's nowhere near as simple as some would have you believe. Mass Transit often sux and isn't a good answer either where I'm at. For now I'll carpool and fill up when I have to...
I've heard this often. As a result I've got one CPU that I've kept in a machine running hot as hell for months 24X7. It's a cachless Celeron 266 - running 448mhz. I've done just about everything I can short of really being abusive to kill that sucker - it won't die! I've had friends bring me systems with failed fans who's heatsink was so hot it removed a fingerprint from my finger yet when cooled they ran fine! I've got one PII 233 "in the field" - same one that zapped a fingerprint - that's running 300mhz to this day. It's got to be at least 3 years old - how old is the PII 233 line anyway? It was one of the earliest ones.
I just don't think these suckers die as easily as people think. Since 88 I've only ever had one CPU die on me. It was a Celeron 300A that died within 8 hours and wasn't overclocked - obviously defective and Intel replaced it. Hand that CPU down when you're done with it - it'll make someone else happy:-)
Yeah - there's a certain amount of time needed etc. etc. However what he said is correct with regards to CPUs - they aren't built for a specific speed - a 600 is NO different than a 700 unless the stepping changed. In other words - some engineering guy didn't design a specific line for the 600, the 700, and so on.
That being said - push it until it's not stable, back it off, you're there. As a chip line matures it gets cleaner and cleaner as the manufacturer tunes it and gets the FAB running better for higher yields. When this happens most any of the chips will clock pretty high and the only difference is the speed rating stamped on the CPU. This is why the current Celeron line clocks to 800 almost as a rule and in some cases as high as 900mhz! This from a chip stamped 533. Obviously it's got plenty of on off time at say 800mhz or 750 if you want rock solid stability...
I expected to see the same thing happen with Duron and T-bird and unlocking the multiplier was just a bonus. Giving me that added flexability allows me to get my setup tuned just right - limiting the multiplier means I have to rely on the FSB and right now that just sux. I thought AMD was a litle more friendlier than that - hell they allowed the GFDs didn't they? Bad company - no dollar!
I'm hoping that as the AMD CPU gets more mainstream we'll see some optimizations for it and more performance as a result. The FPU on the AMD is REALLY good and their SMP plans awesome but when I'm playing "Joe user" I look at cost vs performance. Not benchmarks but things like how fast does it flip frames in my favorite game of the week. Heck these days not many games except the Quake line seem to be terribly FPU sensitive anyway - since I like UT better.... (shrug)
Heh, RC5 scores influence me too. Surprise surprise - my cachless Celeron cranks out numbers that are right there with my cached chips at the same speed and it played Quake just fine way back when too....
Even playing Quake it still crunches keys albeit at a lower rate. Gosh, I guess I've got enough CPU left over after UT or Quake to do other things. Must be a pretty slow CPU huh?
The point is I didn't pay much for the CPU and it performs VERY well. AMD's price vs performance ratio was doing well against the Celeron so long as I could overclock it. Stop the overclocking and for me and other overclockers the price of AMD just shot straight up.
Why should I buy AMD when they cost more for less performance at that point? Just hating Intel isn't good enough reason for me to send my money to another company - especially one that's acting like AMD is right now.
Personally I'm waiting to see production CPUs on the shelf with production boards. If all this crap is true I'll be pissed and not upgrade to AMD. Hell, if Tom's site is correct what AMD has done isn't going to stop remarkers anyway - they'll just solder the jumpers on top of the CPU! If it's that easy let me do it in the BIOS...
everyone who claims that they can prove that overclocking causes "data corruption" always does it with super secret code they can't give out and can only demonstrate in their own home?!
So long as you've not got the CPU glowing in the dark and the peripherals so far out of spec the bus rings like a bell it's NOT a problem! I do my taxes on an overclocked machine, I play games on an overclocked machine, I do my mail and WEB on an overclocked machine.
The only reason I ever see instability is because I push my main machine right to the bleeding edge. The other 6 machines aren't clocked right to the edge and run 24X7 for months on end with NO problems. That includes NT4, WIN2K, WIN98, and RH 6.2. All of them run Distributed.net's code too and you'd better belive it bumps the CPU temp up a few extra degrees too:-) One CPU, a cachless Celeron 266, has run 24X7 at 448mhz since it was brand new. RIPs MP3 and burns CDs just fine - cache doesn't effect it for those uses and it cranks keys with the best. Where's this data corruption problem and how come it hasn't "melted down"?
Troll, go home. "Out Quake"?! Spare me - I get as many FPS as I need and run Distributed.net in the background just fine thanks. The fastest system I've got, not counting SMP systems, is cranking darned near 3million keys per sec! The CPU cost me all of about $80.
Slap your benchmarks on the table for comparison if you must play the "mine's bigger" game but I'll bet my bang for the buck makes you look pretty silly. Stop trying to justify spending all that money with floating point benchmark jibberish - if it doesn't get me something in the real world I'm not interested.
"No nothings" from an anon poster? People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. I've been at this a good long time and benchmarks hardly rule the world. Run a Celeron at 850+ and it performs just fine. Go away troll, far away....
Sad thing is I think the AMD CPU is awesome and own stock! But if they can't meet my performance bang for the buck rule they don't get my cash. I've been waiting for the DURON for my next upgrade but if this thing is locked down I'll save my money. I can just slap a Celeron in those systems instead for an outlay of less than $100. (sigh)
If they've changed this from the way it WAS then they are indeed hurting the overclocker. Lock the multiplier on the chip such that the chip can't be modified and remarked so that it looks like a faster chip - fine. But changing it such that motherboards like the ABIT can't change the multiplier using external logic? Bullpucky!
Even with the way they've supposedly done it now I can overclock with the FSB so how does this protect anyone from buying an overclocked "system"? It doesn't! If the FSB could be jacked up over say about 110mhz I might not be so unhappy but I've not seen many reports that can do it. What's that give me against say a Celeron 533 that runs 850mhz and costs a few dollars more than a DURON?
"I overclock everything I own. Currently Intel Celeron 533's are clocking to over 850mhz. An AMD CPU with a comparable price will NOT beat a Celeron at that speed - period. IF AMD prevents overclocking then they will simply not be price competitive for my dollar and NOT receive it - simple!"
What I mean is - if they prevent overclocking they will NOT be able to compete. Clock for clock the AMD and Celeron "race" isn't - the AMD is a better CPU but it's amazing what an extra couple of hundred mhz will give to a lesser CPU:-)
I overclock everything I own. Currently Intel Celeron 533's are clocking to over 850mhz. An AMD CPU with a comparable price will NOT beat a Celeron at that speed - period. IF AMD prevents overclocking then they will simply not be price competitive for my dollar and NOT receive it - simple!
I'll be interested to see how this effects the new ABIT MB. It's supposed to allow multiplier modification in the BIOS and was to be my next purchase. Guess what AMD - ABIT and YOU will not be receiving my money if you've clock locked. For that matter even multiplier locking your CPUs may be enough to turn me away since your CPUs cann apparently not handle FSBs much over about 110mhz.
The "issue" here is that AMD supposedly doesn't want remarked PROCESSORS. If that's really what they're whining about and not overclocked SYSTEMS then their current setup of locking the multiplier but allowing external logic to change it is fine ala ABIT. If they've decided this isn't good enough then this crap about wanting to stop remarkers is just that - crap. For that matter even with a solid multiplier lock you can still overclock with the FSB unless they've locked that too - not likely. So they've not actually stopped overclocked "systems" either.
What EXACTLY is it that AMD is trying to accomplish? Or perhaps Tom is full of crap yet again?
I'm voting with my wallet and so should everyone else. If AMD is going to pull the rug out and change their price\performance ratio against the Celeron then they won't be getting my money nor that of any of the friends I advise on computer purchases...
Okay - here's the deal. BO and BO2K are both programs that must execute on the target system. You don't "hack into" a machine and execute it remotely. There's generally no command shell available that will allow you to kickoff a program like that. Instead it's generally easier to send them an executable that has BOwhatever wrapped in it. When they exeucte this program is loads itself up, sets some Reg keys, and opens a port for business.
If this person is claiming to simply have knocked on the door of this machine and gotten a screenshot s\he is full of it. On the other hand it's possible these morons had already had someone send them a copy of BOwhatever and that they had a port open and waiting. IF that was done then yes it wopuld've been CAKE to take a screenshot.
Goes like this - find the correct port - 31337 for BO for instance, log in - usually no password, screenshot the system saving it to a file somewhere (there's a command for this), then fire up a WEB server on their side (BO can do this easily), browse to the correct file location, download the screenshot. If you're smart you'll "freeze" the file for transfer (compress it) and then "melt" it on your side. If you don't do this the transfer of the data can become a bit noticable - I once almost got spotted when someone's little CUCME conference was lagging due to this - they were having CyberSex of all things (shiver). Figures I got the woman's side of it too - that means I saw the guy on her screen (ick).
So - the only way this could've been done quite as it was described (or as quickly as it was described) was for BO to already have been present. Considering that I used to find BO on as many as a hundred machines a night on my ISP alone (I used to warn people) this isn't exactly incredible but... Just imagine the infected sorts of files people must send to SPAMMers! If you read the ICQ logs you can also see that we're not exactly talking about rocket scientists either:-)
My question is this - if this is a haox, why? An axe to grind on this company? That's an awful lot of work creating those logs ya' know, the conversations are mostly lucid... But then, who the heck saves all of those silly ICQ conversations? Talk about leaving evidence around for whoever busts down the door!
I dunno' if I believe this or not.... Sorry to ramble:-)
P.S. There used to be whole archives of screenshots done with BO. My favorite was of a desktop where the message read somerthing like "get off the computer dork, there's a perfectly nice girl on the bed behind you - go get it on with her" - the second shot, taken through the system's camera (yes it does this) was of the guy's face! Talk about a laugh riot - his jaw was on the floor!
I live in GTE-land. Manassas Va to be exact, home of GTE and Jones cable and not far from DC. You'd think getting access here wouldn't be hard - WRONG! 3 years ago I decided I wanted high speed access after getting an ISDN flier from Bell (I'm just over the line). Price seemed right but I had to go through GTE. GTE's price at the time was literally DOUBLE the price of going through Bell and the difference was explained as "we're trying to get it lowered but the regulators haven't approved it". Yeah okay, spare me. Even investigated getting a Bell line dragged in but the tariffs would've killed me. Next I called my local cable company who was running beta testing for 'net access on the other side of town. 6 months I was told, just six months - thus began my wait. 6 months later I called back and was told 6 months again - and have been ever since only now it's "soon". Still no access. Lately DSL has been making waves - about a year ago I called GTE about it after their WEB site said it was available - even signed up for the service! After hearing nothing for a month I called back - ticket was closed and I was told I couldn't get service. I then heard from friends local to me that they had gotten a flier from the local phone store about service - it was available. Checked the WEB site, still there, called it in again and signed up - again it got cancelled and one surly rep told me I couldn't have seen it on the WEB as it wasn't available - I walked the jerk to the URL! My next stop was the phone store - no fliers! I asked the clerk about it and was told that they had all been thrown away?! Seems the main office was telling them it was available and to hand them out while the techs were telling them it was NOT available - trapped in the middle they pitched the fliers into the trash. Heard about DSLReports.com and ran my address through them - yippeee, COVAD offered service! Signed up with SpeakEasy and waited for the circuit. COVAD shows up to do the install and it seems GTE never showed up to tag the line. A call and a test is made - break in the line, GTE never did their part. Break gets fixed (apparently) but loop never gets installed - GTE says no pairs are available (?!). I wait 4 MONTHS and every 2 weeks GTE says sorry, no copper available at the CO. On top of this there's fiber in my line so I must go with IDSL for close to $80 a month for 128K (sigh). I offered to drop my second line to free a pair but was told this wouoldn't help - are they multiplexing something? I get 42K connects with a modem - ick. Finally the other day I got the word from COVAD - order cancelled, no facilaties available from GTE. I'm left standing on the side of the road, money in hand, and none of these idiots will take my money and provide service. My cable company still has it's head up it's butt - I've switched to DISH in protest. GTE still says ISDN is available - I may run the monkeys through that excercise next. If they can install IDSN but NOT have a pair for COVAD I'll be writing the regulators and getting them reamed. I'd take a Bell dialtone over GTE any day and will if I'm ever given a choice! P.S. No, I wn't use a DISH for 'net service. I wanted to host my own server and play online games. Sat dishes are mostly one way and the latency is terrible. I'd kill for terrestrial wireless or to get a line from Bell! Hell, I'm considering MOVING to get service!
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The LUX sux!
:-) I then discovered that my B&W camera is IRDA sensitive so one of these days I'm going to get off my butt and build an LED IRDA lightsource for it or possibly a filter for a regular lightsource - just for fun. It's still fairly bulky so trying to hide it might be tough but it "sees" through smoked plastic easily so it could be disguised I guess(shrug).
However I was able to get a nice sensitive B&W camera cheap off of E-Bay and hook up the X10 transmitter to it
For now it just sits on my shelf waiting for my time to tinker. All in all it wasn't an expensive purchase and was fun to learn with...
chained together PS2s acting together to display a hi-rez graphics simulation. However during this display they made sure folks knew that the hardware and software used to do this would NOT be released or sold. It was a tech demo - nothing more. However, it does point out that it's possible to do this and if you know something is posisble you're halfway to doing it yourself..
:-)
Still, I find the idea that these guys are going to be able to do this pretty amusing. One of the articles I read said they might be able to chain together a pile of these to remotely control a plane! Um yeah, I think they certainly could find a better use than that. Another part of the article claimed that they were having trouble calculating yields of their weapons. Hell, wouldn't bigger just be better?
I watched an engineering model being built using the older technology where the model dipped into the polymer, got zapped, dipped, etc. etc. I've also seen some of the really weird stuff done with massive numbers of paper "cutouts" pasted together. Great if you want to see if a part will fit but not something you'd actually be able to use in the real world.
Auto manufacturers and others who use castings must love this stuff. Make a CAD model and have it printed out for say flow bench testing before actually spending big bux for a test casting. Heck, make the molds from the plastic!
The one big issue I noticed about this process though was that it was DIRT SLOW! It was also very size limited - at least the resin model I saw was. Want a 2inch toy? No problem, wait a few hours. You'd be old and gray before you could turn out a chess set I swear. Obviously the technology has progressed and I think the idea of using inkjet technology is pretty novel but at what rate can it build an object up? If it's a micron at a time you could be waiting a good long time to build somehing like a cylinder head out of something substantial. I note that they gave no speed benchmarks and that while they mentioned things like axles they didn't give dimensions. I suppose multiple heads would help with the speed issue if you had enough CPU power to run them all.
Hrm, I wonder if we'll have to heat treat things like axles and heads when they're built? Won't this end up being more resource wasteful in the end that massive dedicated manufacturing? As an Automotive nut I can see the advantages of being able to build complex structures in an axle or a cylinder head but.... I do think toys will be the best first outlet for this but they'll have to figure out a way to beat Joe Offshore laborer before it'll be terribly viable IMO.
I don't even own a DVD player on my computer so my use of this has been left to compressing video I've gotten elsewhere. I use Flask to do it and while it takes some tinkering and I still don't 100% understand all of it I DO manage to shrink file sizes and retain quality.
Think of it as PKZip\Tar for video and you can see the potential. I run a modem at home so anything that can be done to shrink file size is a blessing to me!
I've not seen this mentioned and I'm surprised /. didn't make great hay out of this story but...
http://www.pc-help.org/privacy/ms_guid.htm
That I found linked from SecurityFocus.com
Scary stuff, no? And if you block refers AND cookies you CANNOT navigate their sites as it supposedly gets caught into some sort of loop. If you've got cookies turned off they use refers to track you on their site using a GUID set in the URL and then hidden with a redirect! Just turning off cookies isn't good enough anymore! Thankfully for me @Guard can block refers too, a real shame Symantec bought the product and turned it into crap!
Interesting that this came about just as IE was about to introduce tools to block 3rd party cookies isn't it? Create a feature but make sure YOU are immune from it - cute.
Supposedly the Ad Banner folks are really up in arms about this new security feature in IE and are "meeting with MSFT". Gee, what do you think "meeting" means? Little money moving around maybe?
It's been found that 3rd party sites can redirect through the MSFT GUID server and use the GUID just fine - wonder if the ad banners will start doing that now. And you thought being tracked with an SSN was bad?!
Welcome to the 'net - here's your GUID and if you don't accept it you can't go anywhere. Here thought I had to worry about the Congress Critters trying to create some sort of silly Internet License - Microsoft has apparently not waited on them! Let's hope this practice doesn't spread and that bringing this slimy thing to the light of day will make it wither and die...
No, and in fact NO ONE has such a list! Why? Well it seems that this piece of important legislation was voted upon by voice. What does this mean? Apparently that they simply asked everyone who wanted it to say Yea or Nay at the appropriate time. Those who wanted it were more numerous and it passed - but no actual count was taken nor were any names recorded.
Pretty scary huh? I believe this was also voted on upon at an off-hours time but that may be FUD. The important thing to realize here is that OUR representatives must have KNOWN that this was controversial legislation and wanted to make sure that no one knew how each of them voted upon it!
Frankly, that scares the crap out of me. These bastards KNEW that when people began to figure out the ramifications of this that they'd be pissed and wanted to dodge those angry voters - and they did it didn't they?
The public voted down DIVX with their wallets, yes? Guess what - it's coming back only this time we won't have a choice. We'll no longer be able to BUY a piece of media and have rights to what's on that media. Instead we'll be leasing or renting the material on it! Just wait for DVD Audio - I'm quite sure it'll protected and that breaking it will cause all sorts of havoc. Let's just hope that MP3 players that provide large amounts of music per CD get a strong toehold before DVD Audio manages to make it's way to the market place. The only advantage I see to DVD audio right now is play time - lot' of music. If we can get some sort of compressed music player out there first perhaps the DVD Audio won't have as much allure.
Trouble is it's companies like AIWA and Kenwood that are making these players. $600 for the Kenwood and $300 for the AIWA - IF you can find them. Won't surprise m at all if the likes of Sony\Aiwa sabotages getting the MP3 players to market (shiver).
Now you've gone and told everyone how to execute commands on the remote box :-) Yes, this has been an OLD problem for awhile - I find it during security reviews on a regualr basis. Even if they don't run with the Admin account (I've yet to see one setup liek that actually) the account that it DOES run under is powerful enough to do a Net Use and copy over the backup SAM file. RDISK -S- is your friend in this case since so many people never make Rescue disks - you have to do it for them! :-P
I was wondering how long the XP_CMDSHELL thing would remain in the dark once folks figured out that the password was shipped BLANK. Seriously - everyone who neve though to try a blank admin password raise your hands. Good, now smack yourself - that's the first password you always try. Password, SA, and Admin are also good ones for the truly clueless. I can't believe sites in an enviropnment as hostile as the 'net are so stupid as to not set an admin password.
Oh yeah - check out Oracle and Suybase while you're at it. Not much better there folks! Scott\Tiger anyone? That's the least of your worries. Some of those damned accounts are so poorly documented it's no small wonder that they aren't fixed. At least you can't get into a command shell as easily with those two - we've yet to find a command in either of those as powerful as XP_CMDSHELL....
Banner blocking software is a wonderful thing! I don't know what response the sites get back but AtGuard (since sold to Symantec dammit) blocks banners VERY well! It also blocks refers, cookies (instance by instance or site by site), and Java if I desire. It can prevent animated GIF files from looping endlessly too if you don't like the distractions. Last but not least - a nice fairly simple firewall is included. It may not be Fort Knox in the way of firewalls but the banner blocking alone saves me ton's of bandwidth on my crappy modem!
Lot's of banner blocking software out there besides AtGuard - check into it - you'll be very glad you did...
If you're only method for ensuring it's NOT a SPAMMER is to ask the supposed source IP if it's really got a file then this ought to be easy to defeat - yes? Simply cache a list of "real" files on real IPs (not yours of course) and then spit that back out. The verification check would find the file - yes? Perhaps I've missed something here - are they prepending the crap to the file name or is there some form of description that they've screwing with?
Let's jusy hope they don't find another ISP anytime soon!
If I could buy CDs with an emulator ala MAME and a pile of my old time favorite arcade games I'd be all over it! However these things aren't being offered for sale at any price, short of an entire cabinet that likely needs repair, so I do the emulator thing. For that matter I don't even do much more than dabble in MAME simply because tracking down the ROMs, setting it all up, and getting it working is a pain. Put some $$ incentive out for the programmers and it would become MUCH more user friendly I'm sure. And yeah, the Arcade article a couple of days ago got me interested again but I've not yet gotten to try the newer emulators and frontends - but I will :-)
Kripes, give us a choice and make some money - don't just take the choice away!
What happens when they DO decide to go after people selling these things secondhand? What happens when they simply "license" the game, CD, DVD, or operating system to you? Oh yeah - we've started to see that now haven't we? What happens when the flea market gets raided and the LEGIT copies of DVDs get grabbed because the person isn't a "licensed seller"? When will these companies begin trying to set the price on used sales and require that they receive a portion of the profits?
I honestly see this coming if we're not careful and it may even be happening somewhere that I'm ignorant of. The snowball is already rolling downhill - pretty soon this slide will be unstoppable.
Guess it's time to get those ROMs into some of the distributed filesystems out there huh? Oh that's right - the programmers who programmed those could actually find themselves liable now too. Cute....
It had to be said, sadly, it really did. I've used IE for a good long time, Netscape just never "felt" right for me (personal choice). IE has had some flakiness but overall it's worked fine. Meanwhile my SO had used Netscape until it just got to the point where it was so unstable that she had to switch. She's a "user" - she just wants to browse WEB pages not learn the guts of why something's broken. Needless to say IE now works fine for her (sigh). This wasn't dirty pool by Microsoft, they just delivered a product that worked is all.
When Netscape declared they were releasing source code I was actually pretty hopefull. Without competition MS will become complacent just like Netscape did. However, in the time since it was released Netscape has continued to make "point releases" to their old crap and I've yet to hear about any of the Mozilla versions being stable enough to - wow - use!
This is a real shame too. My biggest hope, and one of the reasons MS's IE has done so well was that a componentized version of Netscape would be released. Then products like Quicken, Notes, and a ton of other products wouldn't actually have to write their own browsers. Neat idea huh? So how come IE is the only one that's done it so far? My customer is exclusively Netscape but slowly but surely IE is taking over and getting upgraded on everyone's workstations - the component portion is why. These people like most users don't want to hear the political crap as to why they shoudl or shouldn't use a product - they've got a life and a job to do.
Get with it Netscape, there's a reason you're losing the "browser war" and it's not all just dirty pool by Microsoft. Get off the porch and innovate!
BTW - anyone else read the open letter to Netscape by the standards group that concerns itself with browsers? It would seem IE is more compliant than Netscape these days. Sad huh?
I was hoping someone would mention that "little" bit of extra work! It's not really as easy as just pulling up to McDonalds for a fill. I've read about several folks having problems trying to get the ratios right and learning how to get it right. Ambient temp and other things can make the production of this stuff slightly tricky. Heh, a trolling motor is supposed to be good for stirring it tho' :-)
Moderate this guy's post up please!
Let's not forget that alcohol has about half the BTUs of gas. You can run higher compression because it's got higher octane but it also doesn't "bang" as well. You'll use more of it to get where you're going. Alcohol attacks the rubber that many fuel systems use too and screws up aluminum parts if you're not careful. Racers know this (ahem). It's a bit rough on the valves as well. Alcohol fires are "interesting" too, just ask any Indy driver who's experienced one!
Natural gas can work but again you've got a shorter range and more frequent fillups due to the volume used. The containers required are heavy or if made of carbon fiber (lighter) they cost a mint. All it will take will be some dork blowing himself up and people will freak over that too.
Want to get mad? Look at the cute additives they stick in during the Winter. Ask the local guys who hop up cars to drive on the street what they think of that fuel. It hoses the systems and the fuel is LESS effecient when that crap is added. During colder months the car should get MORE MPG not less. Why did they add it? To reduce emissions of course. Never mind that MPG dropped noticeably and that we burned more fuel to get "less" emissions.
Don't even get me started on the diminishing returns that systems like OBDII and the future proposed systems have. Some of those proposed systems would even allow roadside monitors to disable your car! Go after a smokestack industries and stop crushing classic cars for kripes sakes! If the Govt. had their way we'd have water coming out of the pipes and pay a million bucks for the cars that do it. Meanwhile big manufacturers will pour crap out of their smokestacks by the ton and crush irreplacable cars in order to "buy" that "right" with "credits".
Yeah, there's lot's to bitch about where all of this is concerned and it's nowhere near as simple as some would have you believe. Mass Transit often sux and isn't a good answer either where I'm at. For now I'll carpool and fill up when I have to...
I've heard this often. As a result I've got one CPU that I've kept in a machine running hot as hell for months 24X7. It's a cachless Celeron 266 - running 448mhz. I've done just about everything I can short of really being abusive to kill that sucker - it won't die! I've had friends bring me systems with failed fans who's heatsink was so hot it removed a fingerprint from my finger yet when cooled they ran fine! I've got one PII 233 "in the field" - same one that zapped a fingerprint - that's running 300mhz to this day. It's got to be at least 3 years old - how old is the PII 233 line anyway? It was one of the earliest ones.
:-)
I just don't think these suckers die as easily as people think. Since 88 I've only ever had one CPU die on me. It was a Celeron 300A that died within 8 hours and wasn't overclocked - obviously defective and Intel replaced it. Hand that CPU down when you're done with it - it'll make someone else happy
Yeah - there's a certain amount of time needed etc. etc. However what he said is correct with regards to CPUs - they aren't built for a specific speed - a 600 is NO different than a 700 unless the stepping changed. In other words - some engineering guy didn't design a specific line for the 600, the 700, and so on.
That being said - push it until it's not stable, back it off, you're there. As a chip line matures it gets cleaner and cleaner as the manufacturer tunes it and gets the FAB running better for higher yields. When this happens most any of the chips will clock pretty high and the only difference is the speed rating stamped on the CPU. This is why the current Celeron line clocks to 800 almost as a rule and in some cases as high as 900mhz! This from a chip stamped 533. Obviously it's got plenty of on off time at say 800mhz or 750 if you want rock solid stability...
I expected to see the same thing happen with Duron and T-bird and unlocking the multiplier was just a bonus. Giving me that added flexability allows me to get my setup tuned just right - limiting the multiplier means I have to rely on the FSB and right now that just sux. I thought AMD was a litle more friendlier than that - hell they allowed the GFDs didn't they? Bad company - no dollar!
I'm hoping that as the AMD CPU gets more mainstream we'll see some optimizations for it and more performance as a result. The FPU on the AMD is REALLY good and their SMP plans awesome but when I'm playing "Joe user" I look at cost vs performance. Not benchmarks but things like how fast does it flip frames in my favorite game of the week. Heck these days not many games except the Quake line seem to be terribly FPU sensitive anyway - since I like UT better.... (shrug)
Heh, RC5 scores influence me too. Surprise surprise - my cachless Celeron cranks out numbers that are right there with my cached chips at the same speed and it played Quake just fine way back when too....
Even playing Quake it still crunches keys albeit at a lower rate. Gosh, I guess I've got enough CPU left over after UT or Quake to do other things. Must be a pretty slow CPU huh?
The point is I didn't pay much for the CPU and it performs VERY well. AMD's price vs performance ratio was doing well against the Celeron so long as I could overclock it. Stop the overclocking and for me and other overclockers the price of AMD just shot straight up.
Why should I buy AMD when they cost more for less performance at that point? Just hating Intel isn't good enough reason for me to send my money to another company - especially one that's acting like AMD is right now.
Personally I'm waiting to see production CPUs on the shelf with production boards. If all this crap is true I'll be pissed and not upgrade to AMD. Hell, if Tom's site is correct what AMD has done isn't going to stop remarkers anyway - they'll just solder the jumpers on top of the CPU! If it's that easy let me do it in the BIOS...
everyone who claims that they can prove that overclocking causes "data corruption" always does it with super secret code they can't give out and can only demonstrate in their own home?!
:-) One CPU, a cachless Celeron 266, has run 24X7 at 448mhz since it was brand new. RIPs MP3 and burns CDs just fine - cache doesn't effect it for those uses and it cranks keys with the best. Where's this data corruption problem and how come it hasn't "melted down"?
So long as you've not got the CPU glowing in the dark and the peripherals so far out of spec the bus rings like a bell it's NOT a problem! I do my taxes on an overclocked machine, I play games on an overclocked machine, I do my mail and WEB on an overclocked machine.
The only reason I ever see instability is because I push my main machine right to the bleeding edge. The other 6 machines aren't clocked right to the edge and run 24X7 for months on end with NO problems. That includes NT4, WIN2K, WIN98, and RH 6.2. All of them run Distributed.net's code too and you'd better belive it bumps the CPU temp up a few extra degrees too
Troll, go home. "Out Quake"?! Spare me - I get as many FPS as I need and run Distributed.net in the background just fine thanks. The fastest system I've got, not counting SMP systems, is cranking darned near 3million keys per sec! The CPU cost me all of about $80.
Slap your benchmarks on the table for comparison if you must play the "mine's bigger" game but I'll bet my bang for the buck makes you look pretty silly. Stop trying to justify spending all that money with floating point benchmark jibberish - if it doesn't get me something in the real world I'm not interested.
"No nothings" from an anon poster? People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. I've been at this a good long time and benchmarks hardly rule the world. Run a Celeron at 850+ and it performs just fine. Go away troll, far away....
Sad thing is I think the AMD CPU is awesome and own stock! But if they can't meet my performance bang for the buck rule they don't get my cash. I've been waiting for the DURON for my next upgrade but if this thing is locked down I'll save my money. I can just slap a Celeron in those systems instead for an outlay of less than $100. (sigh)
If they've changed this from the way it WAS then they are indeed hurting the overclocker. Lock the multiplier on the chip such that the chip can't be modified and remarked so that it looks like a faster chip - fine. But changing it such that motherboards like the ABIT can't change the multiplier using external logic? Bullpucky!
Even with the way they've supposedly done it now I can overclock with the FSB so how does this protect anyone from buying an overclocked "system"? It doesn't! If the FSB could be jacked up over say about 110mhz I might not be so unhappy but I've not seen many reports that can do it. What's that give me against say a Celeron 533 that runs 850mhz and costs a few dollars more than a DURON?
What exactly are they trying to accomplish?
"I overclock everything I own. Currently Intel Celeron 533's are clocking to over 850mhz. An AMD CPU with a comparable price will NOT beat a Celeron at that speed - period. IF AMD prevents overclocking then they will simply not be price competitive for my dollar and NOT receive it - simple!"
:-)
What I mean is - if they prevent overclocking they will NOT be able to compete. Clock for clock the AMD and Celeron "race" isn't - the AMD is a better CPU but it's amazing what an extra couple of hundred mhz will give to a lesser CPU
I overclock everything I own. Currently Intel Celeron 533's are clocking to over 850mhz. An AMD CPU with a comparable price will NOT beat a Celeron at that speed - period. IF AMD prevents overclocking then they will simply not be price competitive for my dollar and NOT receive it - simple!
I'll be interested to see how this effects the new ABIT MB. It's supposed to allow multiplier modification in the BIOS and was to be my next purchase. Guess what AMD - ABIT and YOU will not be receiving my money if you've clock locked. For that matter even multiplier locking your CPUs may be enough to turn me away since your CPUs cann apparently not handle FSBs much over about 110mhz.
The "issue" here is that AMD supposedly doesn't want remarked PROCESSORS. If that's really what they're whining about and not overclocked SYSTEMS then their current setup of locking the multiplier but allowing external logic to change it is fine ala ABIT. If they've decided this isn't good enough then this crap about wanting to stop remarkers is just that - crap. For that matter even with a solid multiplier lock you can still overclock with the FSB unless they've locked that too - not likely. So they've not actually stopped overclocked "systems" either.
What EXACTLY is it that AMD is trying to accomplish? Or perhaps Tom is full of crap yet again?
I'm voting with my wallet and so should everyone else. If AMD is going to pull the rug out and change their price\performance ratio against the Celeron then they won't be getting my money nor that of any of the friends I advise on computer purchases...
Okay - here's the deal. BO and BO2K are both programs that must execute on the target system. You don't "hack into" a machine and execute it remotely. There's generally no command shell available that will allow you to kickoff a program like that. Instead it's generally easier to send them an executable that has BOwhatever wrapped in it. When they exeucte this program is loads itself up, sets some Reg keys, and opens a port for business.
:-)
:-)
If this person is claiming to simply have knocked on the door of this machine and gotten a screenshot s\he is full of it. On the other hand it's possible these morons had already had someone send them a copy of BOwhatever and that they had a port open and waiting. IF that was done then yes it wopuld've been CAKE to take a screenshot.
Goes like this - find the correct port - 31337 for BO for instance, log in - usually no password, screenshot the system saving it to a file somewhere (there's a command for this), then fire up a WEB server on their side (BO can do this easily), browse to the correct file location, download the screenshot. If you're smart you'll "freeze" the file for transfer (compress it) and then "melt" it on your side. If you don't do this the transfer of the data can become a bit noticable - I once almost got spotted when someone's little CUCME conference was lagging due to this - they were having CyberSex of all things (shiver). Figures I got the woman's side of it too - that means I saw the guy on her screen (ick).
So - the only way this could've been done quite as it was described (or as quickly as it was described) was for BO to already have been present. Considering that I used to find BO on as many as a hundred machines a night on my ISP alone (I used to warn people) this isn't exactly incredible but... Just imagine the infected sorts of files people must send to SPAMMers! If you read the ICQ logs you can also see that we're not exactly talking about rocket scientists either
My question is this - if this is a haox, why? An axe to grind on this company? That's an awful lot of work creating those logs ya' know, the conversations are mostly lucid... But then, who the heck saves all of those silly ICQ conversations? Talk about leaving evidence around for whoever busts down the door!
I dunno' if I believe this or not.... Sorry to ramble
P.S. There used to be whole archives of screenshots done with BO. My favorite was of a desktop where the message read somerthing like "get off the computer dork, there's a perfectly nice girl on the bed behind you - go get it on with her" - the second shot, taken through the system's camera (yes it does this) was of the guy's face! Talk about a laugh riot - his jaw was on the floor!
I live in GTE-land. Manassas Va to be exact, home of GTE and Jones cable and not far from DC. You'd think getting access here wouldn't be hard - WRONG! 3 years ago I decided I wanted high speed access after getting an ISDN flier from Bell (I'm just over the line). Price seemed right but I had to go through GTE. GTE's price at the time was literally DOUBLE the price of going through Bell and the difference was explained as "we're trying to get it lowered but the regulators haven't approved it". Yeah okay, spare me. Even investigated getting a Bell line dragged in but the tariffs would've killed me. Next I called my local cable company who was running beta testing for 'net access on the other side of town. 6 months I was told, just six months - thus began my wait. 6 months later I called back and was told 6 months again - and have been ever since only now it's "soon". Still no access. Lately DSL has been making waves - about a year ago I called GTE about it after their WEB site said it was available - even signed up for the service! After hearing nothing for a month I called back - ticket was closed and I was told I couldn't get service. I then heard from friends local to me that they had gotten a flier from the local phone store about service - it was available. Checked the WEB site, still there, called it in again and signed up - again it got cancelled and one surly rep told me I couldn't have seen it on the WEB as it wasn't available - I walked the jerk to the URL! My next stop was the phone store - no fliers! I asked the clerk about it and was told that they had all been thrown away?! Seems the main office was telling them it was available and to hand them out while the techs were telling them it was NOT available - trapped in the middle they pitched the fliers into the trash. Heard about DSLReports.com and ran my address through them - yippeee, COVAD offered service! Signed up with SpeakEasy and waited for the circuit. COVAD shows up to do the install and it seems GTE never showed up to tag the line. A call and a test is made - break in the line, GTE never did their part. Break gets fixed (apparently) but loop never gets installed - GTE says no pairs are available (?!). I wait 4 MONTHS and every 2 weeks GTE says sorry, no copper available at the CO. On top of this there's fiber in my line so I must go with IDSL for close to $80 a month for 128K (sigh). I offered to drop my second line to free a pair but was told this wouoldn't help - are they multiplexing something? I get 42K connects with a modem - ick. Finally the other day I got the word from COVAD - order cancelled, no facilaties available from GTE. I'm left standing on the side of the road, money in hand, and none of these idiots will take my money and provide service. My cable company still has it's head up it's butt - I've switched to DISH in protest. GTE still says ISDN is available - I may run the monkeys through that excercise next. If they can install IDSN but NOT have a pair for COVAD I'll be writing the regulators and getting them reamed. I'd take a Bell dialtone over GTE any day and will if I'm ever given a choice! P.S. No, I wn't use a DISH for 'net service. I wanted to host my own server and play online games. Sat dishes are mostly one way and the latency is terrible. I'd kill for terrestrial wireless or to get a line from Bell! Hell, I'm considering MOVING to get service!