Somehow I doubt those are frequently asked questions...
You are right, those questions probably arent that frequently asked, but atleast they are frequently repeating the same answer to almost every question... =)
I agree with you that any hw/sw available to public in a same extent as xbox is, will be hacked sooner or later.
Still I fully agree with everyone who says that they (Micro-friggin-$oft) shouldn't be considered as criminals when they are trying to prevent modding.
They could loose significant amounts of money, if every unit is hacked (or can be hacked easily). Just imagine the amount of ripped games downloaded from the 'net, or sold down the street on your way to your favorite coffee shop. That is a threat, especially when they are selling the consoles them selves on loss. They have to make money by selling games, just the consoles are not enough.
What is the conclusion here, hell yeah they will be doing a changes to hw every now and then. This will not change the fact that every change they made will be hacked, but it will make it harder for hackers to sell the mods. Just imagine ordinary guy to first determine the revision of his xbox then buy a revision specific mod, and once he has it installed, he finds out that it was a incorrect mod. (and he just wasted his box). Once you have dozens of different revisions which are virtually incompatible (when it comes to hw mods), it's heck of a more difficult to sell the mods. These changes that they will probably do, wont affect the software compatibility and the developers never notice the difference between hardware revs.
No offence, but where did you get the idea that "KISS" == "Easy to use" ?
You sure can make a simple program, but it (more often than not) can be real pain to use. The structure and implementation could be simple though the user interface sucks bigtime. Even in applications like this which are meant to ease the use, some of the easy-to-use functionality must be removed to keep the system secure enough. And I think no one can deny the fact that simple programs/protocols/whatever are always easier to secure than their complex counterparts.
They will give "computer makers more flexibility to add icons and menu entries". As the article says, I would rather like to see stripped down version of Windows, without IE. After that, I would only need to find some other browser that really works...
As the Cisco is deploying (in future) new IOS with IPv6 support, it's good for gradual change but doesn't give real reason for anyone to start using v6 addresses. From my point-of-view (it's always easy to say) deployment of IPv6 capable IOS version could be started at last year, as the standard has been complete for a while.
Presence of the IPv6 support is no reason to start using it. It's same thing as with DoRK, the next generation p2p system. I have support for that also, but why should I use it? If it would be compatible with Napster, gnutella, etc... I would love to use it. The point is, at the moment registars (RIPE atleast, only one that I have experience about) are allocating too large IP blocks for customers without any plans about how to reduce the usage of IPv4 addresses. What would happen if they would stop assigning more that 1 to 16 addresses for single company (depending one the size of the company), but they would give you (more) supplementary IPv4 addresses when allocate block of v6 addresses. They could also require that client must have plan about how to deploy and start using v6 capable hw/sw.
If you postpone the start of assigning new v6 addresses until there are no more v4 addresses left, you are making a big mistake. It's almost the same that uyou would start fixing Y2k problems at 2001.
It's strange game we are playing at these days... Does anyone remember good old days, when there were people who were able to 'optimize' code for speed. What happend to us guys? Now we are just able to optimize code for size (And really, I don't mean getting it smaller)
I think that at these days no one is paying attention to optimization, generally. If something is slow, just buy new mobo+cpu, more memory or faster (and/or bigger) disk.
Most likely users with extremely high bandwidth connections will never utilize even a tiny fraction of the bandwidth, and when they do they will be connection to services (video on demand) that are specifically designed to handle the load.
Do you think your ISP is designed to handle the load of 200 users connecting to these services?
...is SCSI no longer necessary for desktops / workstations / small servers?"
As a HDD interface? I think not. As a interface for external devices? Definetly. who wants to plug a external ZIP or CDR drive to parallel port?
For medium-sized servers SCSI is still the best choice. IIRC, ATAPI doesn't implement hot-swapping, and I haven't seen that many IDE controllers with RAID support.
Is this just an excuse by the industry to hold back the advancement of technology, or is the ease of distribution -really- that much of an issue?"
Consider your self as a artist, what would you think about illegal copying? every illegal copy is less mony for you.
Some people say "Ok, I download MP3s from net, but if I like about it, i'll buy it"... Ok this might be true as long as the quality is poor enough , but what if quality is good enough (near or equal to CD quality), is there a real reason to buy original? maybe for CDs, you get covers and some fancy stuff with cd, but if one sells music in Internet as MP3s, what do you get? Nothing? so there is no 'real' reason to buy a legimate copy.
Just think, have you ever heard that someone said "gosh, this is a illegal copy, I cannot listen this. I have to buy it!"
I think that real issue here is the ease of distribution, while there is no loss of quality.
Slashdot Mirror
...using a standard mobo /w standard LN2 equipment, which will be shipped with every Intel cpu in future, instead of fan+sink.
I think GNU should be credited, but I think they shouldn't be begging for it...
Somehow I doubt those are frequently asked questions...
You are right, those questions probably arent that frequently asked, but atleast they are frequently repeating the same answer to almost every question... =)
Why not do ANYTHING rather than focus on a project that has no useful outcome
;)
At every friday, why are you spending time at {bar,pub,disco} meeting new people ? You could always do something useful instead...
The answer is, once again, because we can do it.
Do we really need a better reason ?
I agree with you that any hw/sw available to public in a same extent as xbox is, will be hacked sooner or later.
Still I fully agree with everyone who says that they (Micro-friggin-$oft) shouldn't be considered as criminals when they are trying to prevent modding.
They could loose significant amounts of money, if every unit is hacked (or can be hacked easily). Just imagine the amount of ripped games downloaded from the 'net, or sold down the street on your way to your favorite coffee shop. That is a threat, especially when they are selling the consoles them selves on loss. They have to make money by selling games, just the consoles are not enough.
What is the conclusion here, hell yeah they will be doing a changes to hw every now and then. This will not change the fact that every change they made will be hacked, but it will make it harder for hackers to sell the mods. Just imagine ordinary guy to first determine the revision of his xbox then buy a revision specific mod, and once he has it installed, he finds out that it was a incorrect mod. (and he just wasted his box). Once you have dozens of different revisions which are virtually incompatible (when it comes to hw mods), it's heck of a more difficult to sell the mods. These changes that they will probably do, wont affect the software compatibility and the developers never notice the difference between hardware revs.
... and Brian Valentine is excellent teacher:
"We all suck."
From Inforworld article
You sure can make a simple program, but it (more often than not) can be real pain to use. The structure and implementation could be simple though the user interface sucks bigtime. Even in applications like this which are meant to ease the use, some of the easy-to-use functionality must be removed to keep the system secure enough. And I think no one can deny the fact that simple programs/protocols/whatever are always easier to secure than their complex counterparts.
They will give "computer makers more flexibility to add icons and menu entries".
As the article says, I would rather like to see stripped down version of Windows, without IE. After that, I would only need to find some other browser that really works...
Well, It's not that bad if your monthly rent is around $15, and for $10 you can buy enough vodka for whole month.
Rates should not be compared to your local pay rates, but to the russian ones.
Presence of the IPv6 support is no reason to start using it. It's same thing as with DoRK, the next generation p2p system. I have support for that also, but why should I use it? If it would be compatible with Napster, gnutella, etc... I would love to use it.
The point is, at the moment registars (RIPE atleast, only one that I have experience about) are allocating too large IP blocks for customers without any plans about how to reduce the usage of IPv4 addresses. What would happen if they would stop assigning more that 1 to 16 addresses for single company (depending one the size of the company), but they would give you (more) supplementary IPv4 addresses when allocate block of v6 addresses. They could also require that client must have plan about how to deploy and start using v6 capable hw/sw.
If you postpone the start of assigning new v6 addresses until there are no more v4 addresses left, you are making a big mistake. It's almost the same that uyou would start fixing Y2k problems at 2001.
Better later than never, though.
It's strange game we are playing at these days... Does anyone remember good old days, when there were people who were able to 'optimize' code for speed. What happend to us guys? Now we are just able to optimize code for size (And really, I don't mean getting it smaller)
I think that at these days no one is paying attention to optimization, generally. If something is slow, just buy new mobo+cpu, more memory or faster (and/or bigger) disk.
- Huge
As a interface for external devices? Definetly. who wants to plug a external ZIP or CDR drive to parallel port?
For medium-sized servers SCSI is still the best choice. IIRC, ATAPI doesn't implement hot-swapping, and I haven't seen that many IDE controllers with RAID support.
Some people say "Ok, I download MP3s from net, but if I like about it, i'll buy it"... Ok this might be true as long as the quality is poor enough , but what if quality is good enough (near or equal to CD quality), is there a real reason to buy original? maybe for CDs, you get covers and some fancy stuff with cd, but if one sells music in Internet as MP3s, what do you get? Nothing? so there is no 'real' reason to buy a legimate copy.
Just think, have you ever heard that someone said "gosh, this is a illegal copy, I cannot listen this. I have to buy it!"
I think that real issue here is the ease of distribution, while there is no loss of quality.
Is this another excuse to restrict export of cryptographic software?