I was under the impression that encryption was an export munition, so it could be sent (downloaded?) by citizens of/in counties on the US shitlist. (Irag, Afghaistan, Cuba, Lybia etc.)
One thing, however, is you failed to mention latency. For those that don't know what latency is, it's the time between when you, for example, press a key on your MIDI controller and hear a sound coming out of the software synth on your computer. I own a Digidesign mBox, and if I set the buffers down to 128, I get only 6ms of latency, which I find acceptable in most cases. However the tradeoff is that the lower the # of buffers you have, the more the CPU has to work. The device drivers you use (MME, DirectX, ASIO, whatever Logic Audio for the PC had, before emagic was bought by apple...EASI i think it was called) play a big role in determining latency. In contrast, the MME driver for my soundcard (Realtek AC'97) has 23ms of latency with the buffers set at 1024 (they won't go any lower than that). The directX drivers for the same device give 5ms of latency with buffers @ 256. Yes I realize that that is better than the mBox, but the DirectX driver doesn't have the support for 16 internal tracks like the mBox does.
Latency is always a factor, whether the platform be hardware or software. A hardware synth still has latency, but you most likely won't notice it, but nevertheless, it can be measured. As hardware devices are slowly migrated into software counterparts for PCs, these things need to be taken into account. Fewer buffers mean less latency, but the trade-off is the CPU has to work harder. Add more soft-devices into the fray (reason modules, abelton loops, VST plugins/insturments, audio tracks), thus increasing the number of voices, and the CPU has to work even harder. It's not an exact science, but there are some of us who prefer to shell out the extra $2-300 for a dedicated hardware synth/rack module/drum-machine so to not have to deal with the latency that plague many of their software counterparts. Dedicated hardware, IMO, performs better than 'hardware' designed to run in a software environment which may or may not be 'prepared' to handle it, or has to overcompensate because of limitations in the respective OS.
Now if they could do something about the General MIDI spec...then we would be making progress.
which really isn't anything for a sucessful project studio, or a small-to-medium sized profession studio. And not to start a hardware vs. software debate, there is a device made by Symbolic sound called the Capybara system.
So lets load it up then...
Basic Kyma System - $3470
A basic Kyma System includes a CD-ROM containing the Kyma X software (for both Windows and Macintosh platforms) with over 1000 presets and 350 prototypes, the Kyma X Revealed! book, a Kyma FireWire interface with 3 meter FireWire cable and 0.5 meter Capybara cable, a Capybara320 sound computation engine with four processors and 96 megabytes of sample RAM, four channel 24-bit A/D and D/A converters (up to 100 KHz sample rate), dual two channel 24-bit AES/EBU digital audio interface (up to 100 KHz sample rate), word clock input, VITC and LTC time code inputs and outputs, and MIDI In/Out/Thru. Available with desktop or rack-mount side-panels.
Upgrade to 4 Audio Channels - $995
An I/O module adds 4 more channels of 24-bit 100 KHz A/D, D/A, and AES/EBU audio I/O to a basic Kyma System (for a total of 8 channels). One (1) is the maximum number of I/O modules that can be added to a single Capybara.
Each card provides two additional processors and 48 megabytes of sample RAM. Up to 12 expansion cards can be added to a Capybara320, giving a maximum of 28 processors and 672 megabytes of RAM. (There is a 10% discount for orders of 4 or more cards.)
Total price - $10,891.00
But what does that all mean...
Basic Configuration
4 processors
96 MB sample RAM
12 expansion slots
I/O and external sync (see below)
External rackmount or desktop case (protects the DSPs and converters from the electrically noisy environment inside your personal computer, and leaves valuable slot-space free to use for other cards on your host computer)
Expansion Card
2 processors
48 MB sample RAM (per card)
Up to 12 cards can be added
Inputs and Outputs
4-8 channels
24-bit 32-100 kHz sample rate
Balanced Analog & Digital (AES/EBU or S/PDIF), XLR connectors
MIDI in / out / thru
Converters
Measurements are in A-weighted dB and were made with an Audio Precision Portable One Dual Domain audio analyzer.
48 kHz SNR DNR
A/D
110 dB
110 dB
D/A
105 dB
107 dB
External Synchronization
Word Clock input
VITC & LTC time code input
Benchmarks
To give some idea of the Capybara320's capabilities:
You can create a real-time 66-band vocoder on a basic system. On a fully loaded system, you can create a 600-band real time vocoder.
On a basic system, you can perform additive synthesis with 192 sine wave partials, each sine having its own independent frequency and amplitude envelope with any number of breakpoints in it. On a fully loaded system, you can perform real-time additive synthesis with 1743 partials.
You can generate a granular synthesis cloud with 93 simultaneous grains on a basic system. A fully loaded system can generate clouds of 837 simultaneous grains.
You can use 60 voices of samples on a basic system, and a fully loaded system gives you 545 voices.
this is a serious synthesis and sound design workstation, and trust me when I say that the price is well-justified for the performance, capabilities, and IMHO, ease of use (i was a TA @ clark University computer music studio, and used one on nearly a daily basis.)
No, but I would blame the medical school if there was an outbreak of a biological agent in their custody (example: for research, temporary or permanent storage, etc.) due to inappropiate measures in the storage or handling of said agent.
While we don't know the specifics of how this information was obtained (the article stated that school officials were uncertain as to whether this was an 'inside' or 'outside' job), it's akin to a security flaw going unpatched because the sysadmins "hadn't gotten around to it."
By no means is this any stretch of the imagination. Jan 3rd, when the 'break-in' was discovered puts it right in the middle of xmas break (barring any sort of academic 'mini-semester' [re: 1 course, 3 weeks, 3-4 days a week, 6-8 hours in the classroom and you walk away with an additional course unit, do this for four years and you have a semester's worth of credits), and while many college employees may be working during said break, often times vacations are scheduled for the holidays, which could leave the IT department short-staffed for a temporary period (possibly in the hands of mere PHBs or minimal student-run helpdesk support), but enough time methinks for a flaw to be discovered and exploited, which very well may be the case @ GMU.
"Police are on the lookout for a late-model black Ford Expedition wanted in connection with illegal laser-light use near the municipal airport. Last seen at John's Car Wash on Park and 9th..."
These range anywhere from just about free to catastrophically expensive.
[Oh - and which offers the best encryption/authentication?]Ultr@VNC offers both file transfer and chat support (when used in conjunction with the Ultr@VNC server) in addition to the following (from the readme.txt):
MS Logon/NT security support. You can manage server access using MS Users, Domains and Groups. It also includes a logging feature where all actions are written to a log file.
Bandwidth Saving Strategies that provide optimal responsiveness over slow connections: Server Screen Scaling, Cache Management , Local Cursor handling.
Data Stream Modification Plugin System allowing any kind of operation on the data exchanged between client and server, from an external DLL (independant, not linked and not distributed with Ultr@VNC): additionnal rights checking, communication timing, data recording/persitence, encryption... it's up to the DLL developper.
Various View Modes including Full-Screen, Scaled and Windowed. Full-Screen mode lets you see the remote screen on the entire screen of your display. Scaled Viewer mode lets you see the scaled remote screen in a window with a user defined size. Scaled Server mode generates less network traffic from server side and use a pixel blending algorithm to optimize the display. Fuzzy Mode combines Server and Viewer scaling to provide reasonable visual comfort and speed even over very slow connections. The Autoscaling mode scales the view so it fits the viewer screen.
Support for 32/24/16/8 bits colors. Both Ultr@VNC Viewer and Server are compatible with RealVNC, TightVNC, eSVNC,
PalmVNC2 (with server scaling feature). Ultr@VNC server can work as a Service under all supported operating systems, allowing remote user Logon/Logoff as well as Remote Shutdown.
Connectivity: Standard Viewer and HTTP JavaViewer connections over TCP/IP, as well as XDMCP direct X11 connection (still experimental).
I use it on all the boxes I admin, and it works flawlessly.
However I'm not sure I would want any company to have that level of control over my desktop system. Not to mention having all of my apps and data held hostage to a subscription fee.
That being said, what happens when you decide (for whatever reason) to terminate your service. How do you get your data back? Would the ISP charge you a 'nominal' fee for the "recovery, archival, and shipping" of the data back to the user, or will they just say that since the data is on their servers, it's theirs to keep, or will the data be destroyed upon "termination of service." What sort of recourse would you have then?
A lot of people value their data more than the computer itself, and the idea of such actions may leave a foul taste in their mouth.
And if I, as a musician, and therefore the copyright holder of my creative output (ie music), were to do this with the music that I distribute on a p2p network (if for example, you could purchase the song off my website, with the same DRM but without the malicious payload), I seriously doubt that I would have the same "protections" that overpeer has.
Merely because **AA operates (outside) the law through proxy (ie overpeer), they feel they can circumvent the laws that individuals are held too.
One wrong isn't right. Two wrongs don't make a right. Three lefts make a right, but then you haven't made and progress at all.
if that wasn't the case...the conversation would probably go something like this:
BigWig Holly Woodexec: Mr. Stuntman, we need you for this multi-million dollar budgeted movie we're making. The only stipulation is that you won't get paid until after the movie has had it's theatre run, and we see how well it performed. What do you say?
Mr. Stuntman: So you're telling me that I have to set aside months of my life, risk my neck for all your big explosions, car chases, motorcycle jumps, and building plunge-offs, and I won't get paid until AFTER the movie has had it's run in theatres AND you see how well it performed?
Bigwig: Thats right.
Mr. Stuntman: What happens if the movie is a flop?
Bigwig: You don't get paid.
Meanwhile, our hero Mr. Stuntman has made a beeline for the exit as soon as the words "don't" were uttered. Hollywood wouldn't last very long if this were the case.
huh...
thats completely different from when I went there...no mandatory AV policy; napster *bloody 'uge* in '98 and subsq. winmx/slsk/*zaa/gnutella became super popular...hal petersen was a m$ slut, fired the only mac-friendly guy in OIS, and the majority of macs on campus were in the music dept (duh) where i TA'd and public affairs where i worked...
people got away with murder...
Re:Message from the Extreme Conclusions Club
on
RIP G4 PowerMac
·
· Score: 0
I know of one rather large publishing operation that uses QPS in upstate new york. one of the largest and most up-to-date mac farms i've seen, and they're all running OS9...a travesty
I am the only mac in a pc-only work environment and I spend more time running around fixing the company machines than I spend actually doing my job...which incidently is fixing laser printers...
Slashdot Mirror
at least you didn't change it to Swordfish. That would be the end of everything!
*shudders*
That's why Congress is the opposite of progress...
could NOT...could NOT
I previewed twice and I still missed it...
ugh...
I was under the impression that encryption was an export munition, so it could be sent (downloaded?) by citizens of/in counties on the US shitlist. (Irag, Afghaistan, Cuba, Lybia etc.)
And if you don't know the names of any local dealers will still you get a warning,or will they give you the speeding ticket?
Latency is always a factor, whether the platform be hardware or software. A hardware synth still has latency, but you most likely won't notice it, but nevertheless, it can be measured. As hardware devices are slowly migrated into software counterparts for PCs, these things need to be taken into account. Fewer buffers mean less latency, but the trade-off is the CPU has to work harder. Add more soft-devices into the fray (reason modules, abelton loops, VST plugins/insturments, audio tracks), thus increasing the number of voices, and the CPU has to work even harder. It's not an exact science, but there are some of us who prefer to shell out the extra $2-300 for a dedicated hardware synth/rack module/drum-machine so to not have to deal with the latency that plague many of their software counterparts. Dedicated hardware, IMO, performs better than 'hardware' designed to run in a software environment which may or may not be 'prepared' to handle it, or has to overcompensate because of limitations in the respective OS.
Now if they could do something about the General MIDI spec...then we would be making progress.
So lets load it up then...
A basic Kyma System includes a CD-ROM containing the Kyma X software (for both Windows and Macintosh platforms) with over 1000 presets and 350 prototypes, the Kyma X Revealed! book, a Kyma FireWire interface with 3 meter FireWire cable and 0.5 meter Capybara cable, a Capybara320 sound computation engine with four processors and 96 megabytes of sample RAM, four channel 24-bit A/D and D/A converters (up to 100 KHz sample rate), dual two channel 24-bit AES/EBU digital audio interface (up to 100 KHz sample rate), word clock input, VITC and LTC time code inputs and outputs, and MIDI In/Out/Thru. Available with desktop or rack-mount side-panels.
An I/O module adds 4 more channels of 24-bit 100 KHz A/D, D/A, and AES/EBU audio I/O to a basic Kyma System (for a total of 8 channels). One (1) is the maximum number of I/O modules that can be added to a single Capybara.
Each card provides two additional processors and 48 megabytes of sample RAM. Up to 12 expansion cards can be added to a Capybara320, giving a maximum of 28 processors and 672 megabytes of RAM. (There is a 10% discount for orders of 4 or more cards.)
Total price - $10,891.00
But what does that all mean...
Basic Configuration- 4 processors
- 96 MB sample RAM
- 12 expansion slots
- I/O and external sync (see below)
- External rackmount or desktop case (protects the DSPs and converters from the electrically noisy environment inside your personal computer, and leaves valuable slot-space free to use for other cards on your host computer)
Expansion Card- 2 processors
- 48 MB sample RAM (per card)
- Up to 12 cards can be added
Inputs and Outputs- 4-8 channels
- 24-bit 32-100 kHz sample rate
- Balanced Analog & Digital (AES/EBU or S/PDIF), XLR connectors
- MIDI in / out / thru
ConvertersMeasurements are in A-weighted dB and were made with an Audio Precision Portable One Dual Domain audio analyzer.
48 kHz SNR DNR A/D 110 dB 110 dB D/A 105 dB 107 dBExternal Synchronization
- Word Clock input
- VITC & LTC time code input
BenchmarksTo give some idea of the Capybara320's capabilities:
You can create a real-time 66-band vocoder on a basic system. On a fully loaded system, you can create a 600-band real time vocoder.
On a basic system, you can perform additive synthesis with 192 sine wave partials, each sine having its own independent frequency and amplitude envelope with any number of breakpoints in it. On a fully loaded system, you can perform real-time additive synthesis with 1743 partials.
You can generate a granular synthesis cloud with 93 simultaneous grains on a basic system. A fully loaded system can generate clouds of 837 simultaneous grains.
You can use 60 voices of samples on a basic system, and a fully loaded system gives you 545 voices.
this is a serious synthesis and sound design workstation, and trust me when I say that the price is well-justified for the performance, capabilities, and IMHO, ease of use (i was a TA @ clark University computer music studio, and used one on nearly a daily basis.)
capture the needle
escort the duvet
last man spinning yark
crochet domination
While we don't know the specifics of how this information was obtained (the article stated that school officials were uncertain as to whether this was an 'inside' or 'outside' job), it's akin to a security flaw going unpatched because the sysadmins "hadn't gotten around to it."
By no means is this any stretch of the imagination. Jan 3rd, when the 'break-in' was discovered puts it right in the middle of xmas break (barring any sort of academic 'mini-semester' [re: 1 course, 3 weeks, 3-4 days a week, 6-8 hours in the classroom and you walk away with an additional course unit, do this for four years and you have a semester's worth of credits), and while many college employees may be working during said break, often times vacations are scheduled for the holidays, which could leave the IT department short-staffed for a temporary period (possibly in the hands of mere PHBs or minimal student-run helpdesk support), but enough time methinks for a flaw to be discovered and exploited, which very well may be the case @ GMU.
Or, like most of the people I should OSX too, "Where are all the icons?! How do you launch anything?"
And it was never seen again...
[Oh - and which offers the best encryption/authentication?] Ultr@VNC offers both file transfer and chat support (when used in conjunction with the Ultr@VNC server) in addition to the following (from the readme.txt):
PalmVNC2 (with server scaling feature). Ultr@VNC server can work as a Service under all supported operating systems, allowing remote user Logon/Logoff as well as Remote Shutdown.
I use it on all the boxes I admin, and it works flawlessly.
That being said, what happens when you decide (for whatever reason) to terminate your service. How do you get your data back? Would the ISP charge you a 'nominal' fee for the "recovery, archival, and shipping" of the data back to the user, or will they just say that since the data is on their servers, it's theirs to keep, or will the data be destroyed upon "termination of service." What sort of recourse would you have then?
A lot of people value their data more than the computer itself, and the idea of such actions may leave a foul taste in their mouth.
Merely because **AA operates (outside) the law through proxy (ie overpeer), they feel they can circumvent the laws that individuals are held too.
One wrong isn't right. Two wrongs don't make a right. Three lefts make a right, but then you haven't made and progress at all.
if that wasn't the case...the conversation would probably go something like this:
BigWig Holly Woodexec: Mr. Stuntman, we need you for this multi-million dollar budgeted movie we're making. The only stipulation is that you won't get paid until after the movie has had it's theatre run, and we see how well it performed. What do you say?
Mr. Stuntman: So you're telling me that I have to set aside months of my life, risk my neck for all your big explosions, car chases, motorcycle jumps, and building plunge-offs, and I won't get paid until AFTER the movie has had it's run in theatres AND you see how well it performed?
Bigwig: Thats right.
Mr. Stuntman: What happens if the movie is a flop?
Bigwig: You don't get paid.
Meanwhile, our hero Mr. Stuntman has made a beeline for the exit as soon as the words "don't" were uttered. Hollywood wouldn't last very long if this were the case.
I do declare that this is a non-winnable hand. BTW, that is a real (ctrl-prntscrn) screen cap from windows XP. ~owen
You get to keep everything great about OSX, plus all the fun programs that Linux has
huh... thats completely different from when I went there...no mandatory AV policy; napster *bloody 'uge* in '98 and subsq. winmx/slsk/*zaa/gnutella became super popular...hal petersen was a m$ slut, fired the only mac-friendly guy in OIS, and the majority of macs on campus were in the music dept (duh) where i TA'd and public affairs where i worked... people got away with murder...
you go to Hartwick College too!!!
~owen
I know of one rather large publishing operation that uses QPS in upstate new york. one of the largest and most up-to-date mac farms i've seen, and they're all running OS9...a travesty
i second this!
I am the only mac in a pc-only work environment and I spend more time running around fixing the company machines than I spend actually doing my job...which incidently is fixing laser printers...
~owen
i'm running debian sid on a tibook g4!
debian would be better...
i pay $9.99/month at rackhost.net. PHP, unlimited email, mysql databases, mailing lists, forwarders, aliases, pop3 accounts, subdomains.
~owen
resume - FOR HIRE!