There are several shows that are in HD and are not compressed. My dad is a digital cable subscriber but still switches to OTA when the show is available because cable has so many compression artifacts. I use OTA only but I am a hold-out. I just hate paying for programming that contains ads. I mean, isn't that what the ads are for?
Vote with your wallet; cancel your cable subscription if your cable company is re-compressing the stream.
Here in SoCal, Cox promised to never recompress the raw signal they get from the networks, so whatever we see is the network's fault, not theirs.
What are you talking about? Microsoft did think the web was a serious platform; that's why they came up with/implemented extensions to JavasScript (or "JScript"), such as XMLHttpRequest, which Exchange's web interface used to great effect.
If IE8/IE9 implements Microsoft's J#.NET JIT'ing engine, all other browsers will cry. But I doubt it'll happen.
Audio acceleration is gone. EAX effects are no longer possible.
DirectSound3D hardware acceleration is gone, yes, but in today's world of CPU power it doesn't really matter. And "EAX" is still possible-- you can use the "Creative Alchemy" software, which translates EAX calls to OpenAL calls.
I like Valve's approach-- don't implement any "hardware specific" features. Perform all the effects in software, so everyone gets the same experience, regardless of how much money they shelled out. Works fine for me!
I've run into the same problems, trying to report issues with iTunes/Quicktime... even e-mailing a few engineers at Apple, only to hear nothing back.
iTunes/Quicktime on Windows has some major performance problems, and under Vista, it's usually worse. Here's hoping they really look into them for their next release (iTunes 8?) and maybe they'll consider re-doing the UI using WPF? That would rock, and be waaay faster.
Gutmann also complains at length about HDCP revocation, condemning Microsoft for the evils of the technology, but he manages to completely miss one key point. It's not Microsoft's technology. Revocation is part of Intel's HDCP spec, and all Microsoft did was follow the spec so as not to get sued by half the industry for breaking it. What a lot of folks probably don't realize is that the PC is not where most people watch movies. Whether or not you can play Blu-Ray movies on a PC is really not going to make or break Hollywood. Most 'content' in the world is still being displayed on consumer electronics, and non-Microsoft CE companies are happily implementing HDCP without being flamed up and down the internet. The PC software industry doesn't have a lot of leverage here, and Microsoft's choice is to either implement the restrictions along with the rest, or get locked out of the party. I'd bet that if Microsoft had taken the high ground here and refused to implement DRM, we'd instead see an army of bloggers decrying us for lack of HD media support. We can't win.
Gutmann also complains at length about HDCP revocation, condemning Microsoft for the evils of the technology, but he manages to completely miss one key point. It's not Microsoft's technology. Revocation is part of Intel's HDCP spec, and all Microsoft did was follow the spec so as not to get sued by half the industry for breaking it. What a lot of folks probably don't realize is that the PC is not where most people watch movies. Whether or not you can play Blu-Ray movies on a PC is really not going to make or break Hollywood. Most 'content' in the world is still being displayed on consumer electronics, and non-Microsoft CE companies are happily implementing HDCP without being flamed up and down the internet. The PC software industry doesn't have a lot of leverage here, and Microsoft's choice is to either implement the restrictions along with the rest, or get locked out of the party.
I'd bet that if Microsoft had taken the high ground here and refused to implement DRM, we'd instead see an army of bloggers decrying us for lack of HD media support. We can't win.
The Games Explorer doesn't block you from running games outside of it; that'd be silly. I can run a game just fine by double-clicking it's EXE directly.
Also, all games I've installed so far require Administrator privilages to install (duh) but run just fine under the Standard user rights, without elevation.
That's only if you're logged in under an Administrator account. If you're using a "Standard User" account, you must supply an administrator username/password to continue.
Sorry, but who cares what a guy from Wildtangent says. Why would anyone want that crap on their PC anyhow?
His complaints have little merit and cry of someone who doesn't want to get with the program and be more security-minded. Nevermind the fact that companies like his are what help spread malware, spyware and "attached" installations via games for kids.
Contact Steam support. Ask about a refund. Otherwise, I dunno what to tell ya. Most people aren't going to experience the problems you're having. Steam/HL2 works great on three of my PCs here, and two are custom built.
Also, if your machine is "crashing", it's most likely due to:
1) Drivers (kernel mode) 2) Lame power supply 3) (very unlikely, but hey) The "bad capacitors" problem
Mythbusters aside, there is no way a handgun is going to throw someone back that far, or make them do a complete flip. Unless your arm gets shot off in the process..
You can already check your "prefetch" folder under \WINDOWS\ to see what programs you've run recently.. among other areas. You can always turn prefetching off (but it sucks without it..)
Superfetch really has no privacy/forensic implications any more than "most recently used documents" does.
I've yet to meet someone who is really "serious" about cleaning their tracks on their PC, more than just their IE history and MRUD. They either don't realize or don't care that their registry and other parts of the system still retain bits and pieces there, nor the fact that "deleted" files and data can still be recovered by certain means.
I'm glad no one knows what they're talking about in this thread.
I am glad to set the record straight, via Paul Thurrott:
In today's versions of Windows, a technology called the Windows Prefetcher performs simple memory caching in a bid to improve overall system performance. The Prefetcher uses available system RAM to cache, or prefetch, memory pages that it believes the user will need in the future. The goal is to reduce unnecessary disk access because random disk I/O is one of the most obvious performance bottlenecks on a typical PC. "To get the disk out of the way," Aul told me, "the Prefetcher precaches the data it thinks you will need. That way, the disk read operation won't be necessary."
Windows XP's Prefetcher performs this service for a wide variety of file types, including Windows Explorer, the Windows boot files, and others. But Prefetcher has some limitations. If you run several memory-intensive tasks (e.g., games, graphics editing, video editing), all of those cached memory pages will be pushed out to the disk-based page file. So when you go back to a cached task, the system has to read them back from disk, thus obviating any performance benefit.
Logically speaking, Vista's SuperFetch is the next version of the Windows Prefetcher. Like its predecessor, SuperFetch caches often-used files so that you can access them more quickly in the course of a typical work session. But SuperFetch is more efficient than Prefetcher. First, it tracks how often you access certain memory pages and over time will develop profiles of the applications you use. "These profiles include fairly complex patterns," Aul told me. "It learns that you can use different applications on weekdays and weekend days, for example, and tracks [PC] job and computer use changes." The net result is that when a memory-intensive task pushes cached memory pages out, SuperFetch will monitor operations and pull the pages back in as soon as possible to avoid a disk-intensive slowdown when you go back to using more commonly accessed applications.
I keep hearing bitching about this, but they tell you right in the release notes that it will "overwrite" IE6.
Also, to the people complaining about not being able to install it on the same machine with IE6.. don't you "developers" have MSDN licenses (or copies of Virtual PC?) Or surely you can afford a spare machine and/or copy of Windows XP around the office to do your testing on? Do you routinely put betas on your workstation? Pfft.
Now follow through with that logic-- what would they have to gain by covering that up? Just trying to save face? Why would they do that when they've been open on a lot of other things regarding the 360?
a) People are changing the orientation of their XBox360 while the disc is spinning. Stupid idea anyhow.
b) People are scratching the disks on accident/purpose/etc.
Also, you have to factor in the normal wear and tear of sending out/receiving all those discs back and forth constantly. Even Netflix is understanding in this regard. I have received two discs from them that were unplayable, and I went online and reported them as scratched. They sent out a replacement, and all was well!
One of my friends was pretty pissed off to find that the G5 the Apple store sold him (with the recommended 8 gigs of RAM for video editing, as well as the HD iMovie package) could not in fact use the entire 8 gigs of RAM because only certain parts of the OS are 64-bit. You can only allocate 2 gigs max to any 32-bit application. I had to look up all this information for him. Ugh.
Slashdot Mirror
There are several shows that are in HD and are not compressed. My dad is a digital cable subscriber but still switches to OTA when the show is available because cable has so many compression artifacts. I use OTA only but I am a hold-out. I just hate paying for programming that contains ads. I mean, isn't that what the ads are for?
Vote with your wallet; cancel your cable subscription if your cable company is re-compressing the stream.
Here in SoCal, Cox promised to never recompress the raw signal they get from the networks, so whatever we see is the network's fault, not theirs.
What are you talking about? Microsoft did think the web was a serious platform; that's why they came up with/implemented extensions to JavasScript (or "JScript"), such as XMLHttpRequest, which Exchange's web interface used to great effect.
If IE8/IE9 implements Microsoft's J#.NET JIT'ing engine, all other browsers will cry. But I doubt it'll happen.
DirectSound3D hardware acceleration is gone, yes, but in today's world of CPU power it doesn't really matter. And "EAX" is still possible-- you can use the "Creative Alchemy" software, which translates EAX calls to OpenAL calls.
I like Valve's approach-- don't implement any "hardware specific" features. Perform all the effects in software, so everyone gets the same experience, regardless of how much money they shelled out. Works fine for me!
I've run into the same problems, trying to report issues with iTunes/Quicktime... even e-mailing a few engineers at Apple, only to hear nothing back.
iTunes/Quicktime on Windows has some major performance problems, and under Vista, it's usually worse. Here's hoping they really look into them for their next release (iTunes 8?) and maybe they'll consider re-doing the UI using WPF? That would rock, and be waaay faster.
http://blogs.msdn.com/audiofool/archive/2007/01/0
http://blogs.msdn.com/audiofool/archive/2007/01/0
There are rules for what EXEs automatically generate an elevated permissions request. See the documentation:
r ary/00d04415-2b2f-422c-b70e-b18ff918c2811033.mspx? mfr=true
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVista/en/lib
Look for "installer detection".
The Games Explorer doesn't block you from running games outside of it; that'd be silly. I can run a game just fine by double-clicking it's EXE directly.
Also, all games I've installed so far require Administrator privilages to install (duh) but run just fine under the Standard user rights, without elevation.
That's only if you're logged in under an Administrator account. If you're using a "Standard User" account, you must supply an administrator username/password to continue.
Sorry, but who cares what a guy from Wildtangent says. Why would anyone want that crap on their PC anyhow?
His complaints have little merit and cry of someone who doesn't want to get with the program and be more security-minded. Nevermind the fact that companies like his are what help spread malware, spyware and "attached" installations via games for kids.
Contact Steam support. Ask about a refund. Otherwise, I dunno what to tell ya. Most people aren't going to experience the problems you're having. Steam/HL2 works great on three of my PCs here, and two are custom built.
Also, if your machine is "crashing", it's most likely due to:
1) Drivers (kernel mode)
2) Lame power supply
3) (very unlikely, but hey) The "bad capacitors" problem
None of which are Steam's fault.
Mythbusters aside, there is no way a handgun is going to throw someone back that far, or make them do a complete flip. Unless your arm gets shot off in the process..
Hah, oh man. Didn't you see the Mythbusters episode about this?
Anyways, it boils down to the simple "every action has an equal and opposite reaction" law.
Until such a time those "alternative" browsers become the mainstream, then suddenly they're the enemy now..
This doesn't happen automatically, you specifically have to set it up and dedicate a memory key to the task if you want to use the feature.
You can already check your "prefetch" folder under \WINDOWS\ to see what programs you've run recently.. among other areas. You can always turn prefetching off (but it sucks without it..)
Superfetch really has no privacy/forensic implications any more than "most recently used documents" does.
I've yet to meet someone who is really "serious" about cleaning their tracks on their PC, more than just their IE history and MRUD. They either don't realize or don't care that their registry and other parts of the system still retain bits and pieces there, nor the fact that "deleted" files and data can still be recovered by certain means.
I'm glad no one knows what they're talking about in this thread.
I am glad to set the record straight, via Paul Thurrott:
In today's versions of Windows, a technology called the Windows Prefetcher performs simple memory caching in a bid to improve overall system performance. The Prefetcher uses available system RAM to cache, or prefetch, memory pages that it believes the user will need in the future. The goal is to reduce unnecessary disk access because random disk I/O is one of the most obvious performance bottlenecks on a typical PC. "To get the disk out of the way," Aul told me, "the Prefetcher precaches the data it thinks you will need. That way, the disk read operation won't be necessary."
Windows XP's Prefetcher performs this service for a wide variety of file types, including Windows Explorer, the Windows boot files, and others. But Prefetcher has some limitations. If you run several memory-intensive tasks (e.g., games, graphics editing, video editing), all of those cached memory pages will be pushed out to the disk-based page file. So when you go back to a cached task, the system has to read them back from disk, thus obviating any performance benefit.
Logically speaking, Vista's SuperFetch is the next version of the Windows Prefetcher. Like its predecessor, SuperFetch caches often-used files so that you can access them more quickly in the course of a typical work session. But SuperFetch is more efficient than Prefetcher. First, it tracks how often you access certain memory pages and over time will develop profiles of the applications you use. "These profiles include fairly complex patterns," Aul told me. "It learns that you can use different applications on weekdays and weekend days, for example, and tracks [PC] job and computer use changes." The net result is that when a memory-intensive task pushes cached memory pages out, SuperFetch will monitor operations and pull the pages back in as soon as possible to avoid a disk-intensive slowdown when you go back to using more commonly accessed applications.
There's always Virtual PC..
Or you could just use the "Manage Add-ins" section in XP SP2 to disable the validation active-x control, and it will let you pass through anyhow..
Or ya know, just buy a copy of XP.
I keep hearing bitching about this, but they tell you right in the release notes that it will "overwrite" IE6.
Also, to the people complaining about not being able to install it on the same machine with IE6.. don't you "developers" have MSDN licenses (or copies of Virtual PC?) Or surely you can afford a spare machine and/or copy of Windows XP around the office to do your testing on? Do you routinely put betas on your workstation? Pfft.
.. and become a "review" site, so I can get free crap and attempt to destro-- I mean, improve it.
Now follow through with that logic-- what would they have to gain by covering that up? Just trying to save face? Why would they do that when they've been open on a lot of other things regarding the 360?
Or it means that:
a) People are changing the orientation of their XBox360 while the disc is spinning. Stupid idea anyhow.
b) People are scratching the disks on accident/purpose/etc.
Also, you have to factor in the normal wear and tear of sending out/receiving all those discs back and forth constantly. Even Netflix is understanding in this regard. I have received two discs from them that were unplayable, and I went online and reported them as scratched. They sent out a replacement, and all was well!
One of my friends was pretty pissed off to find that the G5 the Apple store sold him (with the recommended 8 gigs of RAM for video editing, as well as the HD iMovie package) could not in fact use the entire 8 gigs of RAM because only certain parts of the OS are 64-bit. You can only allocate 2 gigs max to any 32-bit application. I had to look up all this information for him. Ugh.
I'm a gamer
Ahh, yes, but not primarily a console gamer..
I want to play open source games and download mods and maps without paying a fee to Microsoft.
Do you know that all 360 owners get an XBox Live silver subscription for free?