ATAPI still has a limit of 2 devices (master/slave) per controller. Ultra-SCSI is 15, not including LUNs.
ATAPI devices are still limited to hard drives and CD-ROMs (via a hack). SCSI handles scanners, tape drives and other devices as well -- it is much more generic.
ATAPI still causes performance degredation when you are accessing the master and slave on the same channel at the same time. SCSI does not.
That was my point. When I read that I got really bad vibes about the entire project. It is like someone saying "that isn't important" when they really mean to say "I don't know how to do it, so I'm gonna downplay it".
Broadcast 2000 never supported DV-out, so while you could grab from a DV camera, you couldn't save back to tape.
One of the reasons given was something along the line of "DV is old and going to be replaced soon".
I never successfully got BC2000 to work. Though I started playing in earnest 2 weeks ago. I d/led the source for just about everything they had on the site: BC2000, firehose, some MPEG conversion utility and others.
If the opponent WON all 4 games, the score would have been 8-0.
Championship chess normally has lots of draws.
Re:Actually a good idea.
on
Rent-a-Game
·
· Score: 1
Actually it is why we have demos and crippleware.
Let me clarify: if they can make this work with ANY off the shelf software, without the need for a different "version" that is rentable, then it is a clear winner.
If they require a separate "rentable" version then it isn't any different from downloading a demo or trial version.
Re: You've got to be kidding!
on
Rent-a-Game
·
· Score: 2
Have you seen that site?
Check out "buffer times" for a wonderful joke. It lists "expected start times in minutes" vs your rated connection. Got 1.2 Mbps download? Start time on Thief 2 is 55 minutes! Only have 256 Kbps -- hour about 4+ hours!
Nice idea, but if the implementation isn't better than that, they will never fly.
Actually a good idea.
on
Rent-a-Game
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
This isn't a bad idea. Yes, most Linux users will just use a free piece of software but regular Windows users are different.
I've lost count of how many times people have complained to me about crappy software they were stuck with after buying it blind. This could save them some money.
On Aug. 22, Standard & Poor's cut its rating on Gateway Inc...
Gateway will close all of its company-owned operations in Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand...
The company said it will unveil its final decision on its possible withdrawal from the European market in the next 30 days.
It is closing its Salt Lake City manufacturing plant and consolidating its domestic call centers, shuttering call centers in Hampton, Va.; Vermillion, S.D.; Salt Lake City; and Lake Forest, Calif.
Their stock hit an 5-year low a couple of days ago. Their credit rating is "junk bond" BBB-.
In mid-August the closed about 10 of their "Gateway Country Stores" and put on hold plans for expansion.
Other news articles entitled "Gateway makes plans to leave Britain/Ireland" and the like abound.
Their sales were in the toilet last quarter.
(They should have never bought Amiga. That curse is worse than any Pharoah's!)
Read even closer: http://www.compaq.com/newsroom/pr/2001/pr200106250 1.html
Compaq cross-licensed the patents -- they did NOT sell them. Compaq agreed to EOL the Alpha with the upcoming EV7 being the last in the line. Alpha was to continue to 2003 or 2004 with existing customers being supported through 2009.
Yes, lots of engineers, technology, etc. went to Intel. Lots also stayed on to continue development of the EV7. Once they were done, they, too, are destined for Intel.
As far as the speculation part -- The NYT and WSJ don't run major stories based on speculation. Especially when the announcement is supposed to be less than 24 hours away. It looks kind of stupid when your print counterpart is released and you were wrong. That was all hedging because the formal announcement, covered by SEC regulations, must come from the companies involved.
I didn't forget Sun -- I listed them in the "Big 3".
SGI is a "player" as they sell some very high end systems. I'm not sure if they still own Cray or not, but their Origin line is still a hot property. They are also still big in the graphics industry/Hollywood.
"Big" in this case refers to name, dollars, product line and not necessarily body count. On the other hand, their "smallish" state is why I wondered what would happen. They have great technology, but can they leverage it in a consolidated playing field.
That's what I though. If I remember correctly, Compaq already announced the planned EOL of the Alpha.
Chip consolidation -- Intel, Sparc, PowerPC. Is MIPS still around other than embedded systems?
64-bit architecture
on
HP Buys Compaq
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
This means HP will inherit the Alpha processor. They already have the PA/RISC and are "co-developing" some of the IA-64 line with Intel. They also inherit cool products like the Itsy and the iPaq.
Linux is the only OS that will run on their entire architecture: Alpha, PA/RISC, IA-64 and x86. They sell machines with all of the above processors.
The makes a "Big 3" of Unix vendors: IBM, Sun, HP/Compaq.
SCO was acquired by Caldera, but they, along with all the other Linux vendors, are wannabes next to that bunch.
Unless I am missing someone, that really only leaves SGI as the remaining "big" Unix vendor. I wonder if they are going to be bought; wither-and-die; or if they can make a go of it alone.
No wires is the point. Running cable, coax or cat-5, is a pain in an existing house. It is also limiting. I don't like *having* to drop my PC/TV near a cable outlet. I would greatly prefer the freedom of arranging my furniture anyway I like -- without running cables everywhere.
Transfer video from my camcorder to a T.V. without having to jack it. Watch my DVDs/videos without having to run wires.
Having a security camera with a good resolution by the front door would be nice -- without having to run coax.
Watch "cable" TV with the portable TV out on the deck. Have a TV in every room without having to run cables everywhere.
It would also do the same for sound -- allowing me speakers in every room without a wiring nightmare.
Freedom from wires.
Re:You are so incredibly wrong its not funny
on
Linux Office Suites
·
· Score: 2
Thanks for the pointer. After skimming through everything on Wotsit, the RTF spec is more robust than I was aware.
However, the reality is:
MS Word complains that users might lose formatting information when saving files as.RTF instead of.DOC. Whether it is true or not isn't relavant -- unless that warning can be disabled. Too many people will believe it and shy away from RTF.
The last time I tried importing/exporting complex Word docs via RTF I *DID* lose some information -- mostly revisioning and embedded comments. This might be the implementation of Word's RTF importer or not. It probaby was.
Reality is 95% of the public uses MS Office. The vast majority of corporate word processing and spreadsheet data is in Word & Excel format. This data needs to be read/writted transparantly -- without undue user intervention.
HTML w/CSS doesn't support (as far as I know) revisioning/versioning (very populat with the corporate crowd); document history; document review; multiple digital signatures; etc.
Yes, it COULD be hacked to work with a combination of PGP/GPG, HTML/CSS, RVS/CVS and a few others.
That isn't the point. The point was backwards compatibility with Office 95/97/2000 file formats in a seamless manner. RTF doesn't cut it.
Remember when Office 97 came out? There was a big scandal because MS promised that it read/wrote MS Office 95 formats perfectly.
Truth was Word 97's "Word 95 Export" was nothing more than an RTF export. Office SR1 fixed this. It caused a great deal of headaches in the company I worked for at the time. Quite a bit of formatting was lost when the people with Office 97 saved Office 95 docs.
And if you configure your clients to accept DHCP info from only one server (IP/MAC)?
Yes, I know both IP and MAC addresses can be spoofed but do you have any idea how blatently obvious it is when you stick two machines on one network (wireless or not) with the same MAC/IP address?
"Man In The Middle" attacks are wonderful conversation pieces but good luck in finding any reported successes outside a controlled lab environment.
Either way, combine their solution with both client and server certificates and you have a good solution that your "man in the middle" won't touch.
Make people REGISTER to get an account and issue them a client certificate at that point.
Trident's policy has been, and still is, to require an NDA. That NDA prohibits source code distribution of a driver based off information obtained under NDA. Apparantly, from the successful development of drivers for past Trident chipsets, this part wasn't enforced.
Now, Trident seems to be enforcing that part -- by not providing information to XFree86 developers on the CyberBladeXP and CyberBladeXPm chipsets. The XFree86 developers wanted to amend the NDA to allow source distribution.
Since there has been no change in the NDA, only in enforcement, Trident is claiming that they provide the same support as before. Technically, they do -- sign the NDA and provide binary-only drivers and they'll provide docs.
So, if you support the idea of source code availability for video drivers, keep an eye on the graphics chipset used in your next potential laptop. If it is Trident, look elsewhere.
Slashdot Mirror
I guess they had to blame SOMETHING, and since Y2K got no respect, they nailed that.
The implications are interesting, though. Wait until the anti-abortion crowd gets ahold of that.
"Sorry. We screwed up on the test. You should have aborted that one. Maybe next time."
ATAPI still has a limit of 2 devices (master/slave) per controller. Ultra-SCSI is 15, not including LUNs.
ATAPI devices are still limited to hard drives and CD-ROMs (via a hack). SCSI handles scanners, tape drives and other devices as well -- it is much more generic.
ATAPI still causes performance degredation when you are accessing the master and slave on the same channel at the same time. SCSI does not.
That was my point. When I read that I got really bad vibes about the entire project. It is like someone saying "that isn't important" when they really mean to say "I don't know how to do it, so I'm gonna downplay it".
Just the idea of being able to go back to my parents and saying "See, you were wrong! I *can* make a living playing video games!" would be worth it.
What the hell -- people auction off domain names. Isn't that the same thing? It isn't "real", either.
Broadcast 2000 never supported DV-out, so while you could grab from a DV camera, you couldn't save back to tape.
One of the reasons given was something along the line of "DV is old and going to be replaced soon".
I never successfully got BC2000 to work. Though I started playing in earnest 2 weeks ago. I d/led the source for just about everything they had on the site: BC2000, firehose, some MPEG conversion utility and others.
Mmmmm...fresh code.
Sorry, I was using the Intel floating point unit and it rounded up. :-)
2 points for a win, 1 for a tie, 0 for a loss.
If the opponent WON all 4 games, the score would have been 8-0.
Championship chess normally has lots of draws.
Actually it is why we have demos and crippleware.
Let me clarify: if they can make this work with ANY off the shelf software, without the need for a different "version" that is rentable, then it is a clear winner.
If they require a separate "rentable" version then it isn't any different from downloading a demo or trial version.
Have you seen that site?
Check out "buffer times" for a wonderful joke. It lists "expected start times in minutes" vs your rated connection. Got 1.2 Mbps download? Start time on Thief 2 is 55 minutes! Only have 256 Kbps -- hour about 4+ hours!
Nice idea, but if the implementation isn't better than that, they will never fly.
This isn't a bad idea. Yes, most Linux users will just use a free piece of software but regular Windows users are different.
I've lost count of how many times people have complained to me about crappy software they were stuck with after buying it blind. This could save them some money.
I cannot emotionally accept this fact, so subconciously I block it out. :-)
Thanks for the info.
For how long?
On Aug. 22, Standard & Poor's cut its rating on Gateway Inc...
Gateway will close all of its company-owned operations in Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Australia and New Zealand...
The company said it will unveil its final decision on its possible withdrawal from the European market in the next 30 days.
It is closing its Salt Lake City manufacturing plant and consolidating its domestic call centers, shuttering call centers in Hampton, Va.; Vermillion, S.D.; Salt Lake City; and Lake Forest, Calif.
Their stock hit an 5-year low a couple of days ago. Their credit rating is "junk bond" BBB-.
In mid-August the closed about 10 of their "Gateway Country Stores" and put on hold plans for expansion.
Other news articles entitled "Gateway makes plans to leave Britain/Ireland" and the like abound.
Their sales were in the toilet last quarter.
(They should have never bought Amiga. That curse is worse than any Pharoah's!)
Read even closer: http://www.compaq.com/newsroom/pr/2001/pr200106250 1.html
Compaq cross-licensed the patents -- they did NOT sell them. Compaq agreed to EOL the Alpha with the upcoming EV7 being the last in the line. Alpha was to continue to 2003 or 2004 with existing customers being supported through 2009.
Yes, lots of engineers, technology, etc. went to Intel. Lots also stayed on to continue development of the EV7. Once they were done, they, too, are destined for Intel.
As far as the speculation part -- The NYT and WSJ don't run major stories based on speculation. Especially when the announcement is supposed to be less than 24 hours away. It looks kind of stupid when your print counterpart is released and you were wrong. That was all hedging because the formal announcement, covered by SEC regulations, must come from the companies involved.
I didn't forget Sun -- I listed them in the "Big 3".
SGI is a "player" as they sell some very high end systems. I'm not sure if they still own Cray or not, but their Origin line is still a hot property. They are also still big in the graphics industry/Hollywood.
"Big" in this case refers to name, dollars, product line and not necessarily body count. On the other hand, their "smallish" state is why I wondered what would happen. They have great technology, but can they leverage it in a consolidated playing field.
That's what I though. If I remember correctly, Compaq already announced the planned EOL of the Alpha.
Chip consolidation -- Intel, Sparc, PowerPC. Is MIPS still around other than embedded systems?
This means HP will inherit the Alpha processor. They already have the PA/RISC and are "co-developing" some of the IA-64 line with Intel. They also inherit cool products like the Itsy and the iPaq.
Linux is the only OS that will run on their entire architecture: Alpha, PA/RISC, IA-64 and x86. They sell machines with all of the above processors.
The makes a "Big 3" of Unix vendors: IBM, Sun, HP/Compaq.
SCO was acquired by Caldera, but they, along with all the other Linux vendors, are wannabes next to that bunch.
Unless I am missing someone, that really only leaves SGI as the remaining "big" Unix vendor. I wonder if they are going to be bought; wither-and-die; or if they can make a go of it alone.
No wires is the point. Running cable, coax or cat-5, is a pain in an existing house. It is also limiting. I don't like *having* to drop my PC/TV near a cable outlet. I would greatly prefer the freedom of arranging my furniture anyway I like -- without running cables everywhere.
Transfer video from my camcorder to a T.V. without having to jack it. Watch my DVDs/videos without having to run wires.
Having a security camera with a good resolution by the front door would be nice -- without having to run coax.
Watch "cable" TV with the portable TV out on the deck. Have a TV in every room without having to run cables everywhere.
It would also do the same for sound -- allowing me speakers in every room without a wiring nightmare.
Freedom from wires.
However, the reality is:
MS Word complains that users might lose formatting information when saving files as .RTF instead of .DOC. Whether it is true or not isn't relavant -- unless that warning can be disabled. Too many people will believe it and shy away from RTF.
The last time I tried importing/exporting complex Word docs via RTF I *DID* lose some information -- mostly revisioning and embedded comments. This might be the implementation of Word's RTF importer or not. It probaby was.
Reality is 95% of the public uses MS Office. The vast majority of corporate word processing and spreadsheet data is in Word & Excel format. This data needs to be read/writted transparantly -- without undue user intervention.
Existing data -- not some new file format.
You sound like the guy (B. Gates?) when he was explaining way back when "16K is all the RAM anyone will ever need".
What about the "typical" home user who buys an iMac and wants to transfer some of those neat home-edited videos from one computer to another?
Simple laws of computing: you can never have enough RAM, storage, CPU power or bandwidth.
Data is like a gas -- it expands to fill all available space.
Be even more honest -- it is a HUGE PITA, but it is widely used and thus needs to be supported -- with RTF *does not do*, thus is not suitable.
Telling a customer "you don't need to do that" or "don't do it that way" isn't the proper answer when asked "can your software do this?"
I was giving the short list.
HTML w/CSS doesn't support (as far as I know) revisioning/versioning (very populat with the corporate crowd); document history; document review; multiple digital signatures; etc.
Yes, it COULD be hacked to work with a combination of PGP/GPG, HTML/CSS, RVS/CVS and a few others.
That isn't the point. The point was backwards compatibility with Office 95/97/2000 file formats in a seamless manner. RTF doesn't cut it.
Not really.
Remember when Office 97 came out? There was a big scandal because MS promised that it read/wrote MS Office 95 formats perfectly.
Truth was Word 97's "Word 95 Export" was nothing more than an RTF export. Office SR1 fixed this. It caused a great deal of headaches in the company I worked for at the time. Quite a bit of formatting was lost when the people with Office 97 saved Office 95 docs.
RTF doesn't support tables, embedded objects, headers/footers, TOC, index, etc.
Completely unacceptable for most companies.
Great for simple documents to retain tabs, bold/underline/italic, etc.
And if you configure your clients to accept DHCP info from only one server (IP/MAC)?
Yes, I know both IP and MAC addresses can be spoofed but do you have any idea how blatently obvious it is when you stick two machines on one network (wireless or not) with the same MAC/IP address?
"Man In The Middle" attacks are wonderful conversation pieces but good luck in finding any reported successes outside a controlled lab environment.
Either way, combine their solution with both client and server certificates and you have a good solution that your "man in the middle" won't touch.
Make people REGISTER to get an account and issue them a client certificate at that point.
If I read all of the above correctly...
Trident's policy has been, and still is, to require an NDA. That NDA prohibits source code distribution of a driver based off information obtained under NDA. Apparantly, from the successful development of drivers for past Trident chipsets, this part wasn't enforced.
Now, Trident seems to be enforcing that part -- by not providing information to XFree86 developers on the CyberBladeXP and CyberBladeXPm chipsets. The XFree86 developers wanted to amend the NDA to allow source distribution.
Since there has been no change in the NDA, only in enforcement, Trident is claiming that they provide the same support as before. Technically, they do -- sign the NDA and provide binary-only drivers and they'll provide docs.
So, if you support the idea of source code availability for video drivers, keep an eye on the graphics chipset used in your next potential laptop. If it is Trident, look elsewhere.