You still have the right *and* the ability to mod your console, if you choose. Having Lik Sang shut down doesn't change that.
You're standing on the "I'm a hobbyist, I like to mod stuff!" soapbox with everyone else. If that's really the case, grab a screwdriver, crack open your case, and mod that pile of plastic and copper to your heart's content. Submit a story to Slashdot when you find something.
I think you (and most others on the soapbox with you) are confusing your "right to mod" with your "right to buy instructions/equipment to allow you to do a mod, because you won't/can't do the mod on your own."
Man, about 2 years ago when I was still a college sophomore, my boss told me "we need an inventory database. It has to be done using ASP and SQL Server 7." (I was a sysadmin at the time -- with absolutely no web programming experience)
I gritted my teeth, hit Google, fired up InterDev, found asp101, and by the end of the night I had a proof-of-concept 1-table web inventory system up and running. Took me a couple more weeks to get the rest fleshed out.
Sounds like you're just so resistant to try anything new that you're making it harder on yourself than it really is.
Here at the University of Idaho, we have about 750 public NT4 client machines managed by about 5 part-time administrators (who also happen to be students). Every workstation has a complete suite of over 200 applications installed.
The OS is installed and configured automagically via scripts, and each machine can be completely reformatted/reinstalled by pressing "N" as it reboots.
The back-end is NetWare, with ZEN for application distribution. So no, it's not all Windows, primarily because the university has been pretty much in bed with NetWare for the last 10-15 years.
So when you say that "complex things are unscriptable," that leads me to believe that you have no clue what you're talking about. How is it that editing text configuration files is so much easier than editing text registry patches?
And no, this isn't a "Windows is better!" debate. I just think that if you have people running your systems who aren't morons or zealots, you can make just about anything work well.
How long do you think it will be before that Xbox Live thing comes with a little note saying "Warning: To prevent exposure to adult language, it is suggested children do not use the headset component of this product."
Probably never, since we all know that only cool, mature gamers play on the XBox. All of the kiddies own Gamecubes.
At least, that's what the 10-year-old XBox owners tell me.
Most interesting computer-related prank I ever pulled in high school was when I wrote a TSR that'd play a random tone every time a key was struck. I built a viral install disk and quickly had the entire lab 'infected.'
The first guinea pig(s) were my keyboarding class... It was actually fairly soothing -- 30 PS/2s with typing students sort of sounded like running water. Funny thing was, the teacher didn't notice (or care -- she was old and rather out of it most of the time).
However, when the next class came in a day later, with a different teacher, she apparently flipped out. She accused a friend of mine of doing it and demanded that he fix it. Eventually it got back to me, and I got to go talk to the principal, and he thought it was a pretty good prank -- just "fix it and don't do it again."
I don't know that I'd call DirectX programming elegant. It's very functional, but not elegant.
And no, it's not poorly engineered. It's not well engineered either. It's a PC. It works for what they needed it to do.
The PS2 is well-engineered, despite being difficult to program. The Gamecube is a feat of engineering. A suffuciently powerful, cheap to produce, tiny package that plays good games.
My PC's current "worth" is about $4500 (CDN) ("worth" meaning the retail cost of the parts. Yes, I'm aware that I could not possibly hope to sell this to anybody for the same amount) and I challenge any cheapass sub $2000 "gaming pc" to even try to outperform it. It won't.
And if that's what makes you happy -- that's great.
Meanwhile, I'll happily be playing $2500 worth of games that I can afford because I didn't waste it on hardware that I didn't need to play them.
If a lot of people enjoy reading it then that makes it mainstream. Ths means that it appeals to the lowest common denominator.
This is false logic. Just because something is mainstream does *not* mean that it's somehow inferior to something that only appeals to a select, "enlightened" few. Perhaps it simply has several different elements that appeal to diverse groups? Maybe it's just been so well advertised that more people are willing to give it a chance? There are lots of reasons that something *could* be popular.
The Matrix was popular. Does that mean that it was just pandering to all the action movie junkies out there? Hell, my *grandparents* liked it. But it was popular, so it must be crap, right?
My roommate has the same attitude, and it bugs the hell out of me. Anything pop culture is bad. Unless he likes it -- then he somehow justifies how it's not *really* pop culture, or that it's somehow better than other stuff. If you ask me, it's just a snobby attitude towards people who he (or you) thinks are less educated/enlightened/whatever than himself (or yourself). I think that's BS.
--Jeremy
Re:that doesn't mean they'll produce good games
on
Microsoft Buys Rare
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· Score: 1
1.4 million sales on average throughout their history? Can you substantiate that?
Goldeneye sold several million copies... I think it was near 10 mil, but not sure. Donkey Kong 64 sold several million, Perfect Dark sold a couple million. The 3 Donkey Kong Country games sold in the millions. Banjo-Kazooie did fairly well, too.
But that leaves stuff like Battletoads, Snake Rattle 'n Roll, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Killer Instincts, Time Lord, and tons more that didn't do nearly that well.
Now, I love just about every Rare game that's come out ('cept DK64 -- what an un-fun piece of crap). But I highly doubt that they're averaging 1.4 mil sales/game across all platforms for all time.
I'd like to be proved wrong. Rare's a great software shop. I'd just like to see where you got that number.
I just want to play devil's advocate here, since I'm both a console and PC gamer. (I do tend to prefer consoles, because I can just buy a game and have it work, as opposed to spending 3 days finding a video codec conflict that kept me from playing WC3)
There are certain things that consoles currently can not do, or don't do well. MMORPGs like Everquest are much better served with PC controls, like a full size keyboard, and DSL or cable modem.
The only thing you need a keyboard for in an MMORPG is to chat. Period. Sure, you have a few more shortcut keys, but they're mostly underutilized anyway. As for the DSL/cable modem part, that has nothing to do with the console vs. PC hardware debate. Every current-generation console is shipping broadband adapters, and most PCs still have 56k modems. So it's a moot point.
First person shooters... can you say, mouse-look? As well as the use of several keyboard keys for things like strafing, etc.
While I'll agree that mouse look is great, it's not absolutely necessary. Most console developers in the FPS genre are smart enough to tune their game to not *need* mouse look. It generally makes for a slightly slower-paced game, but I've still had tons of fun with console FPSs. Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Turok... None of them had mouselook, but they were all still immensely playable. And, despite not having a keyboard, they all had strafe buttons. And any other buttons necessary to play the game (like jump for Turok)
RTS games would be a joke without the use of a keyboard... good RTS players use all of the keyboard shortcuts.
I'd just like to point out that the RTS genre started on consoles. Herezog Zwei (sp?) predates even Dune 2.
The nice thing about console games is the (general) playability. Anyone can pick up a controller and play. Naturally, most games still take skill, but you don't have to spend an hour figuring out which button does what. And you don't have to spend *any* time tweaking performance settings to make a game playable on your system. *AND*, despite the superior hardware (and price) of PCs, average PC games still don't look or sound as good as average console games. UT2003 looks just about as good as anything I've seen on a console, but it's the sole exception. Take a look at Starfox Adventures or the Resident Evil remake and then tell me that consoles are "outdated" hardware. (this wasn't brought up by the parent poster, but it's often mentioned, so I thought I'd point it out anyway.)
Wow. So recycling is just a government conspiracy to placate the commie-liberal-environmentalists? That's pretty insightful. Or wait -- actually it's just stupid.
It's just obedience-training. The liberals always do what they're told, because they haven't the imagination or strength of will to create their own freedom.
Your rant was at least a little bit valid (despite the completely pointless part about recycling) until you got here. EVERYONE does what they're told. Liberal and conservative alike. If you think it's any different, it's only because your conservative leaders are TELLING you to think that.
Open your eyes, man. You bitch that it's "them" that's screwing up the system. It's always "them". Until people realize that it's ALL OF US, TOGETHER, screwing things up, it ain't gonna get any better.
You obviously like to complain, but do you ever do anything about it? I doubt it. (And, no, I don't either, but I accept the fact that it's my OWN DAMN FAULT and don't try to blame other people)
The fact that this got modded up to 2 prompts me to go meta-moderate.
--Jeremy
Re:Please Don't buy an Xbox Just for Linux
on
XBox Linux HOWTOs
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· Score: 1
But on the other side these games may be a hell lot of fun... (and Sony with their DRM ideas isn't a company that deserves geek support either (even though their Linux on a PS2 is cool)).
Or, if it's just games you want, you could just get a Gamecube. No DRM. Easily modded to play imports. You're guaranteed to get good games (Metroid, anyone? Almost here!). You save $50. Right out of the box you get a controller that doesn't suck. And the Wavebird kicks ass.
--Jeremy
Re:Where, exactly, is modding prohibited?
on
XBox Linux HOWTOs
·
· Score: 1
Read the tag. It's illegal for the *retailer* to remove the tag, not for the individual who purchases it.
And yes, I remove the tags when they're inconveniently located (such that they make the mattress/pillow uncomfortable) and don't worry about 'the law' comin' to get me.
People use this argument all the time (how could the universe just create itself? It's so perfect, it doesn't make sense!) I don't buy it.
How's this:
How did God just create itself? It's so perfect, it doesn't make sense!
And another thing I don't understand:
Why does evolution preclude the existence of God? Why couldn't God have created all these rules and this perfect universe, and then just sat back and said "go!"
I don't remember how memory allocation works under DOS/BIOS; writing data to disk was indeed done using the BIOS, same with TSR applications and console string handling.
Yeah, writing data to disk was done using BIOS calls. But DOS told the BIOS *where* to write the data, and that's what was really important. No BIOS understands FAT, AFAIK. Memory allocation was done by DOS, unless you used a protected-mode extender like DOS4GW or pmode.
Saying that DOS was nothing but an interface into BIOS calls is an overly simplistic way of looking at what it did. And I know of no games (at least, ones that didn't have to run on a floppy), that handled their own file I/O. Maybe at a higher level (like.WAD files in Doom), but none of them told the BIOS to read/write at specific sectors on the hard disk.
Not that any of this has anything to do with the textbook in question... But I don't think that going into OS-specific details is necessary for an assembly text. It's outside the scope of the book.
In other words, this approach only makes sense when the outside services are OSS / FS / public domain, which means that developers of programs can check their integrity and submit improvements.
Oh, BS.
When I use a 3d API like glide, openGL, or D3D, I don't give a damn how they work. And what's more, I'm not going to go digging into their guts to "check their integrity and submit improvements." The whole reason I'm using an API/service is to save myself time by *not* having to deal with the routines the services provide.
Same goes for any other library you use. MFC. Perl modules. glibc*. ActiveX controls.
I've discovered bugs in libraries before. I've gone looking for ways to fix the bugs. You know how difficult it is to wade through a 200k source tree for a module you didn't write, looking for a bug that *could* be *anywhere*? I don't waste my time -- I report it to the module's author, regardless of whether I have the complete source or just the 'proprietary' binary.
Your argument sure sounds good, but OSS/FS/public domain libraries aren't any better than those provided by MS when you find a bug. Maybe you're a programming genius who can immediately immerse yourself in an entirely new code module and just *know* where the bug is, but for us mortals it's just not practical to go bug hunting every time we find one in someone else's "good outside service."
The API is ok -- as in, programmers won't have to re-write any code against the API to fix it.
The crypto service that is hooked into by the API is bugged. They fix the service, and magically all the broken apps are fixed without rewriting anything else. (Because the API was ok) Think of it this way: there's a bug in libcx. Your code that uses libcx and manifests the bug is immediately fixed once libcx is fixed.
As for only IE being affected -- well, the only MS app that is affected is probably IE, because there aren't any other MS apps that use that particular bugged crypto function. Any 3rd-party apps that use the function are also affected, but I seriously doubt that any apps fall in this category, simply because it's SSL/certificate specific, and pretty much only the web browser needs to do that, and there's no need to write your own web browser when you can use the IE or Netscape HTML controls for free. That's why nothing else is affected.
I've used the Win32 crypto API on occasion. It comes in handy when you need it. No, none of my code is likely to be affected by this bug, since I'm not verifying certificates or anything like that.
As for your statement about MS having two crypto implementations: you're just misunderstanding the distinction between API and OS service. There is no distinction. The API is just how you access the service. That's all.
Everyone repeat: API = Application Programmer's Interface. It's the interface that the programmer uses to get at the OS/DLL/external library's functionality.
They are simply using something called "genetic algorithms" (I assume -- the article never mentioned for certain). "Genetic algorithms" are said to "evolve" a solution.
It has nothing to do with genetics or evolution as you know them. It's just a name. The Seattle Mariners aren't *really* mariners -- they're baseball players. We just call them mariners for brevity's sake.
And in some cases, genetic algorithms do actually do something that closely resembles evolution, rather than just learning. An experiment that involves randomly creating AI agents with limbs and joints out of blocks and telling them to walk or swim, and then culling the worst performers and randomly tweaking the best to find better combinations comes to mind.
Anyway, stop your nitpicking and take a GA course.
Anyone know of any decent "geek" software sites? Someplace that just lists the best free/shareware utilities for a given application? I mean, I'd been using MusicMatch Jukebox for audio ripping for the past 3 years just because I hadn't found anything better, and happened to find CDex because of this story.
It'd be sort of nice to have a site that had just good stuff on it, instead of having to browse through a repository of garbage like Softseek to (maybe) find a somewhat usable utility for what you're trying to do...
There are a small number of top-notch journalists, who really do objective well-rounded reporting. Unfortunately, it really is a small number of journalists.
You know, I almost hate to admit it, but I probably get 90% of my news from the Daily Show. It may be funny, and delivered by comics, but for the most part they really are good reporters. There's generally not much spin on the stories, and Jon Stewart usually does a good job of exposing the crap that most media outlets pass off as "news."
Of course, half of the episodes are always dedicated to morons who think they've seen bigfoot and the celebrity guest, but that 5 minutes of real reporting is pretty good.
It's sort of sad that Comedy Central has one of the best news shows on TV...
Slashdot Mirror
You still have the right *and* the ability to mod your console, if you choose. Having Lik Sang shut down doesn't change that.
You're standing on the "I'm a hobbyist, I like to mod stuff!" soapbox with everyone else. If that's really the case, grab a screwdriver, crack open your case, and mod that pile of plastic and copper to your heart's content. Submit a story to Slashdot when you find something.
I think you (and most others on the soapbox with you) are confusing your "right to mod" with your "right to buy instructions/equipment to allow you to do a mod, because you won't/can't do the mod on your own."
--Jeremy
Man, about 2 years ago when I was still a college sophomore, my boss told me "we need an inventory database. It has to be done using ASP and SQL Server 7." (I was a sysadmin at the time -- with absolutely no web programming experience)
I gritted my teeth, hit Google, fired up InterDev, found asp101, and by the end of the night I had a proof-of-concept 1-table web inventory system up and running. Took me a couple more weeks to get the rest fleshed out.
Sounds like you're just so resistant to try anything new that you're making it harder on yourself than it really is.
--Jeremy
Anyway, it's an entertaining read that's good for a laugh.
... how?
And this is different from the Apple 'switch' ads
--Jeremy
Here at the University of Idaho, we have about 750 public NT4 client machines managed by about 5 part-time administrators (who also happen to be students). Every workstation has a complete suite of over 200 applications installed.
The OS is installed and configured automagically via scripts, and each machine can be completely reformatted/reinstalled by pressing "N" as it reboots.
The back-end is NetWare, with ZEN for application distribution. So no, it's not all Windows, primarily because the university has been pretty much in bed with NetWare for the last 10-15 years.
So when you say that "complex things are unscriptable," that leads me to believe that you have no clue what you're talking about. How is it that editing text configuration files is so much easier than editing text registry patches?
And no, this isn't a "Windows is better!" debate. I just think that if you have people running your systems who aren't morons or zealots, you can make just about anything work well.
--Jeremy
Spork -- let me sum up reallocate's argument *very* succinctly:
Don't shoot yourself in the foot.
Go back and re-read. He's not arguing about legality or morality -- only practicality.
--Jeremy
How long do you think it will be before that Xbox Live thing comes with a little note saying "Warning: To prevent exposure to adult language, it is suggested children do not use the headset component of this product."
Probably never, since we all know that only cool, mature gamers play on the XBox. All of the kiddies own Gamecubes.
At least, that's what the 10-year-old XBox owners tell me.
--Jeremy
Most interesting computer-related prank I ever pulled in high school was when I wrote a TSR that'd play a random tone every time a key was struck. I built a viral install disk and quickly had the entire lab 'infected.'
... It was actually fairly soothing -- 30 PS/2s with typing students sort of sounded like running water. Funny thing was, the teacher didn't notice (or care -- she was old and rather out of it most of the time).
The first guinea pig(s) were my keyboarding class
However, when the next class came in a day later, with a different teacher, she apparently flipped out. She accused a friend of mine of doing it and demanded that he fix it. Eventually it got back to me, and I got to go talk to the principal, and he thought it was a pretty good prank -- just "fix it and don't do it again."
Aahhh, those were the days...
--Jeremy
I don't know that I'd call DirectX programming elegant. It's very functional, but not elegant.
And no, it's not poorly engineered. It's not well engineered either. It's a PC. It works for what they needed it to do.
The PS2 is well-engineered, despite being difficult to program. The Gamecube is a feat of engineering. A suffuciently powerful, cheap to produce, tiny package that plays good games.
--Jeremy
My PC's current "worth" is about $4500 (CDN) ("worth" meaning the retail cost of the parts. Yes, I'm aware that I could not possibly hope to sell this to anybody for the same amount) and I challenge any cheapass sub $2000 "gaming pc" to even try to outperform it. It won't.
And if that's what makes you happy -- that's great.
Meanwhile, I'll happily be playing $2500 worth of games that I can afford because I didn't waste it on hardware that I didn't need to play them.
--Jeremy
If a lot of people enjoy reading it then that makes it mainstream. Ths means that it appeals to the lowest common denominator.
This is false logic. Just because something is mainstream does *not* mean that it's somehow inferior to something that only appeals to a select, "enlightened" few. Perhaps it simply has several different elements that appeal to diverse groups? Maybe it's just been so well advertised that more people are willing to give it a chance? There are lots of reasons that something *could* be popular.
The Matrix was popular. Does that mean that it was just pandering to all the action movie junkies out there? Hell, my *grandparents* liked it. But it was popular, so it must be crap, right?
My roommate has the same attitude, and it bugs the hell out of me. Anything pop culture is bad. Unless he likes it -- then he somehow justifies how it's not *really* pop culture, or that it's somehow better than other stuff. If you ask me, it's just a snobby attitude towards people who he (or you) thinks are less educated/enlightened/whatever than himself (or yourself). I think that's BS.
--Jeremy
1.4 million sales on average throughout their history? Can you substantiate that?
... I think it was near 10 mil, but not sure. Donkey Kong 64 sold several million, Perfect Dark sold a couple million. The 3 Donkey Kong Country games sold in the millions. Banjo-Kazooie did fairly well, too.
Goldeneye sold several million copies
But that leaves stuff like Battletoads, Snake Rattle 'n Roll, Conker's Bad Fur Day, Killer Instincts, Time Lord, and tons more that didn't do nearly that well.
Now, I love just about every Rare game that's come out ('cept DK64 -- what an un-fun piece of crap). But I highly doubt that they're averaging 1.4 mil sales/game across all platforms for all time.
I'd like to be proved wrong. Rare's a great software shop. I'd just like to see where you got that number.
--Jeremy
I just want to play devil's advocate here, since I'm both a console and PC gamer. (I do tend to prefer consoles, because I can just buy a game and have it work, as opposed to spending 3 days finding a video codec conflict that kept me from playing WC3)
... None of them had mouselook, but they were all still immensely playable. And, despite not having a keyboard, they all had strafe buttons. And any other buttons necessary to play the game (like jump for Turok)
There are certain things that consoles currently can not do, or don't do well. MMORPGs like Everquest are much better served with PC controls, like a full size keyboard, and DSL or cable modem.
The only thing you need a keyboard for in an MMORPG is to chat. Period. Sure, you have a few more shortcut keys, but they're mostly underutilized anyway. As for the DSL/cable modem part, that has nothing to do with the console vs. PC hardware debate. Every current-generation console is shipping broadband adapters, and most PCs still have 56k modems. So it's a moot point.
First person shooters... can you say, mouse-look? As well as the use of several keyboard keys for things like strafing, etc.
While I'll agree that mouse look is great, it's not absolutely necessary. Most console developers in the FPS genre are smart enough to tune their game to not *need* mouse look. It generally makes for a slightly slower-paced game, but I've still had tons of fun with console FPSs. Perfect Dark, Goldeneye, Turok
RTS games would be a joke without the use of a keyboard... good RTS players use all of the keyboard shortcuts.
I'd just like to point out that the RTS genre started on consoles. Herezog Zwei (sp?) predates even Dune 2.
The nice thing about console games is the (general) playability. Anyone can pick up a controller and play. Naturally, most games still take skill, but you don't have to spend an hour figuring out which button does what. And you don't have to spend *any* time tweaking performance settings to make a game playable on your system. *AND*, despite the superior hardware (and price) of PCs, average PC games still don't look or sound as good as average console games. UT2003 looks just about as good as anything I've seen on a console, but it's the sole exception. Take a look at Starfox Adventures or the Resident Evil remake and then tell me that consoles are "outdated" hardware. (this wasn't brought up by the parent poster, but it's often mentioned, so I thought I'd point it out anyway.)
Flame away, PC-only gamers.
--Jeremy
Wow. So recycling is just a government conspiracy to placate the commie-liberal-environmentalists? That's pretty insightful. Or wait -- actually it's just stupid.
It's just obedience-training. The liberals always do what they're told, because they haven't the imagination or strength of will to create their own freedom.
Your rant was at least a little bit valid (despite the completely pointless part about recycling) until you got here. EVERYONE does what they're told. Liberal and conservative alike. If you think it's any different, it's only because your conservative leaders are TELLING you to think that.
Open your eyes, man. You bitch that it's "them" that's screwing up the system. It's always "them". Until people realize that it's ALL OF US, TOGETHER, screwing things up, it ain't gonna get any better.
You obviously like to complain, but do you ever do anything about it? I doubt it. (And, no, I don't either, but I accept the fact that it's my OWN DAMN FAULT and don't try to blame other people)
--Jeremy
The fact that this got modded up to 2 prompts me to go meta-moderate.
--Jeremy
But on the other side these games may be a hell lot of fun ... (and Sony with their DRM ideas isn't a company that deserves geek support either (even though their Linux on a PS2 is cool)).
Or, if it's just games you want, you could just get a Gamecube. No DRM. Easily modded to play imports. You're guaranteed to get good games (Metroid, anyone? Almost here!). You save $50. Right out of the box you get a controller that doesn't suck. And the Wavebird kicks ass.
--Jeremy
Read the tag. It's illegal for the *retailer* to remove the tag, not for the individual who purchases it.
And yes, I remove the tags when they're inconveniently located (such that they make the mattress/pillow uncomfortable) and don't worry about 'the law' comin' to get me.
--Jeremy
My only observation:
People use this argument all the time (how could the universe just create itself? It's so perfect, it doesn't make sense!) I don't buy it.
How's this:
How did God just create itself? It's so perfect, it doesn't make sense!
And another thing I don't understand:
Why does evolution preclude the existence of God? Why couldn't God have created all these rules and this perfect universe, and then just sat back and said "go!"
--Jeremy
I don't remember how memory allocation works under DOS/BIOS; writing data to disk was indeed done using the BIOS, same with TSR applications and console string handling.
.WAD files in Doom), but none of them told the BIOS to read/write at specific sectors on the hard disk.
Yeah, writing data to disk was done using BIOS calls. But DOS told the BIOS *where* to write the data, and that's what was really important. No BIOS understands FAT, AFAIK. Memory allocation was done by DOS, unless you used a protected-mode extender like DOS4GW or pmode.
Saying that DOS was nothing but an interface into BIOS calls is an overly simplistic way of looking at what it did. And I know of no games (at least, ones that didn't have to run on a floppy), that handled their own file I/O. Maybe at a higher level (like
Not that any of this has anything to do with the textbook in question... But I don't think that going into OS-specific details is necessary for an assembly text. It's outside the scope of the book.
--Jeremy
In other words, this approach only makes sense when the outside services are OSS / FS / public domain, which means that developers of programs can check their integrity and submit improvements.
Oh, BS.
When I use a 3d API like glide, openGL, or D3D, I don't give a damn how they work. And what's more, I'm not going to go digging into their guts to "check their integrity and submit improvements." The whole reason I'm using an API/service is to save myself time by *not* having to deal with the routines the services provide.
Same goes for any other library you use. MFC. Perl modules. glibc*. ActiveX controls.
I've discovered bugs in libraries before. I've gone looking for ways to fix the bugs. You know how difficult it is to wade through a 200k source tree for a module you didn't write, looking for a bug that *could* be *anywhere*? I don't waste my time -- I report it to the module's author, regardless of whether I have the complete source or just the 'proprietary' binary.
Your argument sure sounds good, but OSS/FS/public domain libraries aren't any better than those provided by MS when you find a bug. Maybe you're a programming genius who can immediately immerse yourself in an entirely new code module and just *know* where the bug is, but for us mortals it's just not practical to go bug hunting every time we find one in someone else's "good outside service."
--Jeremy
It's not difficult:
The API is ok -- as in, programmers won't have to re-write any code against the API to fix it.
The crypto service that is hooked into by the API is bugged. They fix the service, and magically all the broken apps are fixed without rewriting anything else. (Because the API was ok) Think of it this way: there's a bug in libcx. Your code that uses libcx and manifests the bug is immediately fixed once libcx is fixed.
As for only IE being affected -- well, the only MS app that is affected is probably IE, because there aren't any other MS apps that use that particular bugged crypto function. Any 3rd-party apps that use the function are also affected, but I seriously doubt that any apps fall in this category, simply because it's SSL/certificate specific, and pretty much only the web browser needs to do that, and there's no need to write your own web browser when you can use the IE or Netscape HTML controls for free. That's why nothing else is affected.
I've used the Win32 crypto API on occasion. It comes in handy when you need it. No, none of my code is likely to be affected by this bug, since I'm not verifying certificates or anything like that.
As for your statement about MS having two crypto implementations: you're just misunderstanding the distinction between API and OS service. There is no distinction. The API is just how you access the service. That's all.
Everyone repeat: API = Application Programmer's Interface. It's the interface that the programmer uses to get at the OS/DLL/external library's functionality.
--Jeremy
They are simply using something called "genetic algorithms" (I assume -- the article never mentioned for certain). "Genetic algorithms" are said to "evolve" a solution.
It has nothing to do with genetics or evolution as you know them. It's just a name. The Seattle Mariners aren't *really* mariners -- they're baseball players. We just call them mariners for brevity's sake.
And in some cases, genetic algorithms do actually do something that closely resembles evolution, rather than just learning. An experiment that involves randomly creating AI agents with limbs and joints out of blocks and telling them to walk or swim, and then culling the worst performers and randomly tweaking the best to find better combinations comes to mind.
Anyway, stop your nitpicking and take a GA course.
--Jeremy
Man -- never refer to a granny as a harsh mistress. *Especially* when it's your own.
--Jeremy
Those of us using Moz are infinitely happier than those using IE.
:)
Ahh, ignorance is bliss, eh?
(not meant as a troll -- it was just too easy to pass up. <grin> )
--Jeremy
Anyone know of any decent "geek" software sites? Someplace that just lists the best free/shareware utilities for a given application? I mean, I'd been using MusicMatch Jukebox for audio ripping for the past 3 years just because I hadn't found anything better, and happened to find CDex because of this story.
It'd be sort of nice to have a site that had just good stuff on it, instead of having to browse through a repository of garbage like Softseek to (maybe) find a somewhat usable utility for what you're trying to do...
--Jeremy
There are a small number of top-notch journalists, who really do objective well-rounded reporting. Unfortunately, it really is a small number of journalists.
You know, I almost hate to admit it, but I probably get 90% of my news from the Daily Show. It may be funny, and delivered by comics, but for the most part they really are good reporters. There's generally not much spin on the stories, and Jon Stewart usually does a good job of exposing the crap that most media outlets pass off as "news."
Of course, half of the episodes are always dedicated to morons who think they've seen bigfoot and the celebrity guest, but that 5 minutes of real reporting is pretty good.
It's sort of sad that Comedy Central has one of the best news shows on TV...
--Jeremy