You're forgetting the biggest problem with Windows Update - it automagically checks your system for holes, downloads a self-extracting.exe patch to a temp folder, runs it, and deletes it.
This is fine if you never have to reinstall Windows (which I seem to do every few months). MS used to have a "corporate downloads" page with all the patches as plain.exes to download manually (for sysadmins to download the patch once and install it on all their computers), so I used WinUpdate to check what I needed, then went to the corporate page to actually get them. That way I could put them on a CD with my backups and have a reasonably up-to-date Windows install just from the Windows CD and my backup CD, without needing to re-download everything. Unfortunately, a few months after I discovered it, MS stopped updating the corporate page.:-(
Weird, isn't it, how attachments are so much easier than links? (Where I work they have a shared network drive, so I've started using file:/// URLs, but Windows filenames with spaces make this a%20bit%20of%20a%20pain...)
If on Windows and using a shared drive like this, you can always send a shortcut as an attachment, though.
Few people seem to realise binary attachments are automatically 33% bigger than the actual file size, too. (Look at the "full source" or similar option if you want to be worried... some e-mail clients, like Outlook Express, let you look at the actual message, Base64 encoding and all, if you ask them nicely)
Re:But I just got 2.4.7 working right!!!
on
Linux 2.4.8 is Out
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· Score: 1
In case you don't know, if you're on Debian, the combination of a kernel.org source tarball and the Debian `kernel-package' package seems to work nicely.
kernel-package is a replacement build process which compiles your freshly configured source and makes a binary.deb file, which you can then install with dpkg - basically, you run it after `make menuconfig' or `make oldconfig' or whatever, but see the docs supplied with it for real instructions. It's what the Debian maintainers use to make the precompiled generic kernels, and you can also make your own personal kernel-source package containing any patches you applied, if you so wish.
Great. Already, I immediately download CD-cracks for every Safedisc copy-protected game I buy (Unreal Tournament, Rogue Spear, Dungeon Keeper 2, blah...) because my DVD drive and my CD-RW both spend about a minute trying to do error correction on them (copy protection == deliberate disk errors) before finally passing them on to the game's anti-piracy code.
Now I have to worry for the safety of my CD-playing hardware... I can play CDs on the above drives (will almost certainly have problems), or my hi-fi (it's good enough that it can play CD-RWs, so I assume it'll choke too).
Oh well... I can only hope that this new system goes the way of Safedisc. Since a few months ago I've been able to play UT happily without a CD-crack, because Epic Games couldn't be bothered to pay out any more money for easily cracked copy protection, and removed it with an official patch.
Similarly, how long will it take someone to code a speaker-breaking-noise remover into CDParanoia or Lame or something? Ripping and encoding don't use speakers, after all, and many rippers and encoders are open source - and therefore easy to modify.
Hmm... how ironic. As soon as a filter gets written, people with decent CD hardware will be able to listen to the resulting MP3 or CD-copy in perfect safety; but the original CD they copied from could damage their speakers. Wow. A great victory for all concerned.
The bizarre thing about that joke is that you can already do that in Win9x (either by Registry hacking, or with X-Setup by XTeq <http://www.xteq.com>). You're stuck with the standard 16-colour palette though.
As a former BBC Micro user, I switched to a retro green-on-black screen of death as soon as I found this out:-)
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You're forgetting the biggest problem with Windows Update - it automagically checks your system for holes, downloads a self-extracting .exe patch to a temp folder, runs it, and deletes it.
This is fine if you never have to reinstall Windows (which I seem to do every few months). MS used to have a "corporate downloads" page with all the patches as plain .exes to download manually (for sysadmins to download the patch once and install it on all their computers), so I used WinUpdate to check what I needed, then went to the corporate page to actually get them. That way I could put them on a CD with my backups and have a reasonably up-to-date Windows install just from the Windows CD and my backup CD, without needing to re-download everything. Unfortunately, a few months after I discovered it, MS stopped updating the corporate page. :-(
Weird, isn't it, how attachments are so much easier than links? (Where I work they have a shared network drive, so I've started using file:/// URLs, but Windows filenames with spaces make this a%20bit%20of%20a%20pain...)
If on Windows and using a shared drive like this, you can always send a shortcut as an attachment, though.
Few people seem to realise binary attachments are automatically 33% bigger than the actual file size, too. (Look at the "full source" or similar option if you want to be worried... some e-mail clients, like Outlook Express, let you look at the actual message, Base64 encoding and all, if you ask them nicely)
In case you don't know, if you're on Debian, the combination of a kernel.org source tarball and the Debian `kernel-package' package seems to work nicely.
kernel-package is a replacement build process which compiles your freshly configured source and makes a binary .deb file, which you can then install with dpkg - basically, you run it after `make menuconfig' or `make oldconfig' or whatever, but see the docs supplied with it for real instructions. It's what the Debian maintainers use to make the precompiled generic kernels, and you can also make your own personal kernel-source package containing any patches you applied, if you so wish.
Great. Already, I immediately download CD-cracks for every Safedisc copy-protected game I buy (Unreal Tournament, Rogue Spear, Dungeon Keeper 2, blah...) because my DVD drive and my CD-RW both spend about a minute trying to do error correction on them (copy protection == deliberate disk errors) before finally passing them on to the game's anti-piracy code.
Now I have to worry for the safety of my CD-playing hardware... I can play CDs on the above drives (will almost certainly have problems), or my hi-fi (it's good enough that it can play CD-RWs, so I assume it'll choke too).
Oh well... I can only hope that this new system goes the way of Safedisc. Since a few months ago I've been able to play UT happily without a CD-crack, because Epic Games couldn't be bothered to pay out any more money for easily cracked copy protection, and removed it with an official patch.
Similarly, how long will it take someone to code a speaker-breaking-noise remover into CDParanoia or Lame or something? Ripping and encoding don't use speakers, after all, and many rippers and encoders are open source - and therefore easy to modify.
Hmm... how ironic. As soon as a filter gets written, people with decent CD hardware will be able to listen to the resulting MP3 or CD-copy in perfect safety; but the original CD they copied from could damage their speakers. Wow. A great victory for all concerned.
The bizarre thing about that joke is that you can already do that in Win9x (either by Registry hacking, or with X-Setup by XTeq <http://www.xteq.com>). You're stuck with the standard 16-colour palette though.
As a former BBC Micro user, I switched to a retro green-on-black screen of death as soon as I found this out :-)