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User: jonwil

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  1. Re:factory reset? on Cell Phone Secrets Die Hard · · Score: 2, Informative

    On my Motorola L6 (and other motos), there are options labeled "master reset" and "master clear". Activating both will clear out pretty much everything (including stored SMSs, phonebook contents and so on. Would probobly remove custom ringtones and pictures and such too)

  2. Re:I can tell you've never had a cell phone. on Cell Phone Secrets Die Hard · · Score: 3, Informative

    Here in australia, you can ring 19xx numbers from cellphones just fine (unless you have a prepaid or other wierd account/plan)

  3. Re:Another Stupid Headline on iTunes v6 FairPlay DRM Cracked · · Score: 1

    If you buy an E1 ROKR, a V3I RAZR or an L7 SLVR, you can put iTunes on them with a hack that unlocks it to have more songs.

  4. Why macromedia wont let you build players on Interview With Linux Flash Player's Lead Engineer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    There are 2 big reasons why it is unlikely that Macromedia will change and allow the spec to be used to build players.

    Firstly, just like with Sun and Java but much more so, flash truely is "develop once, run anywhere". Any web browser on any platform running the relavent version of the flash player plugin for that platform can play any shockwave flash file out there. (which is probobly why web designers love it so much...)

    And, just like Sun and Java, if Macromedia goes open source or open specs, how can they be sure that "GnuFlash" can play ALL the flash files the same as how the Macromedia player can.

    The other reason is the mobile devices space (PDAs, cellphones, smartphones etc). Right now, Macromedia is pushing heavily into the mobile space and trying to convince mobile device manufacturers to ship "flash for mobile devices". I dont know details but I imagine mobile device makers have to pay Macromedia to ship "flash for mobile devices" in their device (especially when a source code licence is required and its not just a binary provided by Macromedia). If the specs or code were open, the mobile device manufacturers wouldnt need to pay macromedia.

  5. Perfect case in point on First Quantum Cryptographic Data Network · · Score: 2, Informative

    When Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier in the Bell Aerospace X-1 rocket plane, the results were kept classified by the airforce.

  6. A google ebay killer was never going to happen on Google and eBay Partner for Click-to-Call Ads · · Score: 1

    I have no idea of exact figures but from what I have seen when I search on google, ebay has to be one of the top if not the top purchasers of those ads that appear alongside google search results.
    There is no way google is going to risk that by launching a competitor.

  7. Re:Why? on Hardware Headaches Inevitable? · · Score: 4, Informative

    What happens now (on windows) is that applications talk to winsock. Winsock sends the data to kernel mode code including tcpip.sys. From there, it ends up in ndis.sys and then the driver for your network card before being sent to the card.

    What this new thing means is that applications send the data to winsock which hands it directly to a new kind of network card/driver which takes the data and header info and creates the TCP/UDP and IP packets on the card itself in card firmware. From there, the card wraps it up in the lower level protocols and then puts it out over the wire (or air if its wireless)

  8. What the cable companies should do on Learning to Love the Cable Guy · · Score: 1

    1.Phase out analog cable as soon as possible. Specifically, (if they havent already) immediatly cease any new installs of analog cable period. Also, no new analog channels should be added, any new channels should be digital only.
    Also, if you move house, add cable outlets etc, you have to go digital.
    Also, if you want to change packages (add channels etc), you have to go digital.

    i.e., they continue to maintain analog cable & do the minumum work on it to keep it working and keep subscribers from saying "I dont want to spend money to go digital, I will drop the service" but they dont actually make any improvements to it.

    Then, as more and more people switch to digital cable, they can start decommissioning analog cable.

  9. Re:How about just letting me buy what I want? on Learning to Love the Cable Guy · · Score: 1

    what happens is that, say, Disney, says to the cable company that if you want channels a,b and c, you have to take channels x,y and z also.
    If a subscriber has those channels, the cable co gets charged a certain fee for having them.

    Basicly, the way a-la-carte would work is that you would pay a base fee for "having cable" (that covers the fixed costs of providing cable e.g. box rental etc) and then you would pay for each "channel package" (as provided by the studios) paying "cost plus" (i.e. whatever the studio charges the cable company plus a % on top for cable co profit)

    Lets say that a studio says that (for example) in order to get "Movies Plus", you have to also have "Home Shopping 1" and "Home Shopping 2" and that the cable company is charged $5 per month for each subscriber to this "package" of channels. Then, the subscriber decides that they want "Movies Plus" so they pay $x for the fixed cost and then $5 + cable co profit and get "Movies Plus", "Home Shopping 1" and "Home Shopping 2". On the other hand, someone who doesnt want "Movies Plus", doesnt have to take it or either home shopping channel.

  10. Re:Recalls still allowed? on Do Not Flush Your iPod · · Score: 3, Interesting

    At least one airline, QANTAS, has banned using dell laptops on battery power in flight for this very reason.

  11. Re:World of.... on More WoW, Major 2007 Announcement for Blizzard · · Score: 1

    Actually, they would be better off callng it Galaxy Of Starcraft and having some kind of spaceflight (probobly not player controled, just "jumps" from one planet to the next). Anytime they run out of content, they just open up a new jump and new planet.

  12. Re:DBAN on P2P Defendant Destroys Evidence, Case Defaults · · Score: 1

    Better idea, have 2 hard drives. Drive one contains all the legal stuff (including the OS etc), drive 2 contains the illegal stuff.
    If they go after you, remove drive 2 (and all traces there was ever a second drive plugged in) and physically destroy. No way for them to even know drive 2 existed.
    Better yet, have a wireless access point with MAC filtering too. That way, you can legitimatly claim that any logs of "username x with IP address y and MAC address z was illegally sharing songs a,b and c" was someone else on your wireless network with a spoofed MAC address used to avoid the MAC address filtering.

    That way, all they have is logs that a machine with a given username (and matching account details such as address taken from the ISP), a given IP address (which happens to be the public IP address of your wireless router at the time the logs were taken) and (depending on what sort of info they can get from the ISP) MAC address was sharing illegal content. Then, all you need to do is to convince the court that someone connected to your wireless network, faked your MAC address to get past the MAC filtering and proceeded to share out illegal content. Case closed (at least I assume so, IANAL however).

  13. Re:As expected on Internet Connectivity Outside of the United States · · Score: 1

    As an aussie, I must say that broadband in this country sucks.
    Generally, the main problem is the cost and (depending on exactly where you are, rural areas especially) the availability.
    There is a fair bit of competition but ultimatly everyone has to pay up to Telstra. The government doesnt want to pressure telstra over broadband because they are selling off their remaining stake in the telco. The ACCC (the relavent regulator) cant really do anything because telstra has maintained that it cannot charge lower prices and still make money.

    Oh and if there were more links (= more competition = lower prices) across the pacific to the US (or cheaper prices on the links we have now), that would probobly help too.

  14. Re:Stupid? on P2P Defendant Destroys Evidence, Case Defaults · · Score: 1

    Just use the encryption program/mode that has multiple levels of encryption.
    Have level 0 (no encryption) contain the OS, drivers, office program etc.
    Have level 1 contain, say, some family photos or somthing
    Level 2 could contain financial records and other really sensitive private data (the sort of thing you would put in a safe if it was printed out on paper)
    Level 3 could then contain the p2p software and illegal files.
    RIAA comes knocking, hand over the passwords for levels 1 and 2. No matter how hard they try, they could never even identify the existance of level 3, much less decrypt or identify any contents that might be on it. And, they cant force you to hand over the password to level 3 because the design means that you can claim level 3 doesnt exist. (without the password, level 3 and all evidence of its existance is indistiguishable from random garbage)

  15. Re:Stupid? on P2P Defendant Destroys Evidence, Case Defaults · · Score: 1

    They would just supoena both drives (and any recordable CDs, floppy disks, zip disks, USB thumb drives or anything else that might have illegally copied music on it)

  16. Does this mean QANTAS will ban apples too? on Apple Recalls 1.1 Million Laptop Batteries · · Score: 1

    QANTAS (the national airline here in .au) recently banned using DELL laptops inflight on battery power because of the risks of explosion. Will they ban Apples now too? OR will they ban all laptops?

  17. Re:Homebrew support? doubt it. on PS3 Client for Folding@Home Debuts, ATI GPU Version Soon · · Score: 1

    The PS2 linux kit allowed direct access to the CPU and graphics of the PS2 with the full capabilities of both being available to developers. Access to the sound and I/O were given through libraries too.

    As far as I know the main restriction with the PS2 kit was access to the DVD drive.

  18. Re:What is the right browsing? on Unlock Internet or Risk Losing Staff? · · Score: 1

    If you want a good case study example as to why unrestricted internet access is bad, go look up the stories about the theft of the Half-Life 2 source code.
    That happened (AFAIK) because someone was convinced to install a trojan on their machine which was then used to steal the source code.

  19. Re:Can chairs be thrown in court? on Microsoft Admonished by U.S. District Court Judge · · Score: 1

    That reminds me of the scene in Ghostbusters 2 where some chairs get thrown at a nasty judge by some ghosts.

    So yeah, I guess chairs CAN be thrown in a courtroom :)

  20. Re:Another untapped market on Tomorrow's Cell Phones · · Score: 1

    No, this wouldnt be a PDA or smartphone, something smaller and lighter and less featured. The sort of places that ban camera phones and such would also probobly restrict or ban PDAs and smartphones and such (including blackberries) I would expect.

  21. Re:What I really want on Tomorrow's Cell Phones · · Score: 1

    If you had 2 sim cards, you would have to have 2 complete sets of radio hardware (antenna, chipset etc) and would effectivly be (as far as the network(s) are concenred) 2 totally seperate phones.

  22. Another untapped market on Tomorrow's Cell Phones · · Score: 1

    People who want a cell phone but cant take cameras into places they work (lawyers who cant take cameras into courtrooms for example or engineers and such who cant take cell phones into secure locations).
    Basicly, take a Motorola V3 (or Motorola L7 for those who want a candybar style phone) and then remove all the cameras. Remove the MP3 player and MP3 ringtone feature. Remove all the transflash and memory card slots (without cameras and multimedia features, there is no need for that much storage if you put enough into the phone itself). Add in a better contact manager, calender, alarms (the sort of features Outlook has in its calendering module), scheduler etc. Stuff so that these lawyers, business people, professionals etc can keep track of their work, lives etc. Even better would be if you could make it easy to keep the calender on the phone and a calender on a PC syncronised (e.g. via bluetooth or via USB).

  23. Re:Incentives not the same.... on Tomorrow's Cell Phones · · Score: 1

    With respect to call history, the call history that is on every single GSM & UMTS 3G phone I have seen uses the GSM standard phonebooks for "recieved calls" and "dialed calls".
    Applications and devices that send AT commands to the phone (over bluetooth,USB etc) can read these phonebooks with the GSM phonebook commands.

  24. Re:What I really want on Tomorrow's Cell Phones · · Score: 1

    Heck, forget the solar cell, if they just standardised on a universal power jack (why not follow Motorola and use mini-USB? Oh and see if you can get the makers of mp3 players and other devices that could be sucessfully powered via mini-USB on board too...) then someone could make a small external solar cell. Put the solar cell on the dashboard and the phone in that space in front of the gearstick (or the space behind it)

  25. Re:am I the only one on Bioware Announces New Neverwinter Module · · Score: 1

    I didnt really like NWN.
    I only played the single player and the main thing I didnt like is that if you powered through the game you missed all sorts of side quests and then got to a point where because you missed all those quests (and the stuff they gave you, experience, items etc) you were not powerfull enough to continue.
    At least that wat my experience.