One thing that may or may not have been pointed out: if the anti-virus apps are subsidized there will be that much less amount of market forces i.e. motivation to improve and and invest in R and D. Furthermore if only two or three apps are subsidized those will likely be more common and the bad guys can find and exploit the weaknesses in those two or three anti-virus apps. We'll be right back where we started.
I'd also like to point out the patch for the conficker virus was released a month before the virus appeared. Only unpatched machines even can be infected. If everybody kept up to date with their windows patches a lot of viruses would be rendered ineffective before they got started (and with no anti-virus).
...I work in an IT department of a hospital in Northern California. I don't wear the stupid masks, I haven't had any shots and I've been regularly going around to every possible department/area of the hospital during this whole flue scare for (and for the last eight months). I don't have the Swine Flu or whatever they call it these days. Actually so far as I've heard no one else I work with has caught it either. I hope everybody can start to relax about this!
I don't know why but this seemed strangely appropriate.
THAT GUY Let's cut to the chase. There are two kinds of people: sheep and sharks. Anyone who's a sheep is fired. Who's a sheep?
ZOIDBERG Uh excuse me? Which is the one people like to hug?
THAT GUY Gutsy question, you're a shark. Sharks are winners and they don't look back 'cause they don't have necks. Necks are for sheep. I am proud to be the shepherd of this herd of sharks and I am gonna lead you to the top of this industry of...of...
I didn't see anybody else mention it so I guess I will:
There's a whole cult following/whatever around turning a server OS into a workstation. One of the larger sites on this is called Win2008 Workstation. It has a lot of tips that are useful anyway. Apparently it's a very well performing Vista (I haven't tried it yet myself). There's a whole series of steps to getting up and running as a workstation on there, a compatibility list, everything.
Well I suppose it's off-topic but I'm still a little angry about it: I put down $5 at a video game store in EARLY OCTOBER for the PC version of Fallout 3. The guy called it a "pre-order". The term suggests I'm "ordering it" BEFORE it is released. As in I'll have a copy when I come in to pick it up. Isn't that the point? So I go in on the 31st to pick it up and they say it's sold out...what is that like four days? Nobody said anything about getting it within four days. So I'm trying to figure out what the point of pre-ordering is if you don't actually get a copy. What did I pay for?! I think I'll stop going to that particular place for anything game-related. Gamecrazy.
I did this with my channel and put into Miro. I could then play it with both my media extender and Xbox 360. I didn't have to re-encode it or anything.
I wish I could find a more direct link but on the enclosed page if you select "MSDN Operating Systems" it will list everything you get for a subscription of $700. Every version of XP/MCE, every Vista, every server 2003 and 2008 and even betas of the next versions. No need to drop a "killabuck" on the server.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/aa718657.aspx
Also, Comodo personal firewall works on server 2k3...
I happen to be have working on importing settings auto-magically as a automated install project I'm working on. If save the following in notepad with a.REG extension you can then easily import into your registry without much trouble. Something like "disablethemes.reg"
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
; Disable Themes: Provides user experience theme management. (one less thing that has to load)
You can then use a command like
regedit/S disablethemes.reg
in a batch file have it auto-magically disable it as matter of course during windows install.
As for the other settings I discovered I it's possible to:
Create a new user and log into it.
Make all settings adjustments, extensions, "adjust for best performance" in system properties/advanced etc. and then open reg edit.
Select the HKEY-CURRENT-USER key and export it as HKCU.REG.
Then you can import the whole current user key at once, either after logging in or in an automated way during a windows installation using the method above. (Of course if someone out there can tell me a reason NOT to import an entire HKCU like that I'm all ears.) Look up the RunOnceEx key in the registry. It's very useful when re-installing windows.
I've been using AVG Free for years. Then 8 came out and they added a bunch of crap including the link scanner. The link scanner I noticed prevents some sites from loading correctly and seems to slow down others. You can disable the feature but it certainly seems to discourage this. Apparently I new have to find an alternative to AVG. Seems like this was a bad business decision on their part (I certainly won't be buying the full version now).
I agree actually. I spent months researching different things that could be done with my PSP. Then left it alone for several months. Then picked it up again. And found out you can run customized versions of the latest firmware (lots of fun new features, old homebrew for 1.5 doesn't work) in tandem with the 1.5 firmware (legacy homebrew). It does take a lot of patience wading through several different sources of information and outdated forum posts.
I did find some walk-throughs on YouTube. I recommend this highly.
This same thing was asked roughly 9 months ago which got me thinking about my own solution. At first I was going to set up something like FreeNAS in a VM (easy backup, save states, etc.) but soon realized I needed more.
What I have now is a dedicated machine with four 500 gig HDDs in RAID 0+1 (I wanted 1+0 but I couldn't find the option and it's too late now).
In addition to a place on the network to store all my excessive files I can also use it for things like downloading media with Miro and sharing the media with TVersity, which allows me to stream media to my 360 etc.
In addition I added an RSYNC relationship (with deltacopy) between it and my primary PC for backing up and it is running JungleDisk (attached to Amazon's S3) for auto backup offsite.
It also is there if I want to rip and re-encode a DVD to DivX but still use my main machine for something else.
This is probably more than you were asking for but it is working pretty well for me.
If you wanted a low-power solution you could set all the above up with one of those mini-itx VIA boards (just buy a bulky enough PSU). The only devices I have are the five HDDs and a rarely used DVD-ROM. It doesn't actually take a lot of watts even with a normal board.
Since this story was posted they've already released 4.01-m33-2 update along with a +1.5 addon. For those who care you'll know what this means, everybody else continue not caring...
I'm voting for Obama, because I expect him to run a tight ship and weaken the grip of lobbyists over DC. Time will tell how right I am, but right now, there's simply no better candidate in my mind's eye. Wow. Replace "Obama" with "Clinton" and it's 1992 all over again. Great, now I feel old.
Nation Novel Writing Month has been around for almost 10 years and the authors that participate have been releasing lots of novels under CC for almost all that time. And several of them have been allowing edits along with way as well. How you would find them or search examples I don't know; I suppose you could just ask in the NaNoWriMo forums to see.
After years of PC-only gaming I finally got a 360. Here's why: - Sell/trade old games, no serials or activation required. Rentals are nice too. - Everybody has a mic and can connect to multi-player, this doesn't vary at all (on XBL anyway). It's nice when everything is relatively standardized. - No crippling DRM, activation, or serials to keep track of. - And i could mention Achievements but I won't since I don't care.
One real caveat to the 360 gamepads that work with windows is that games still refer to buttons by a number as opposed to letters or "shoulder/trigger". I never memorized which button was which number so I had to write them on the face with a sharpie, making the gamepad kind of ugly. Nice to have an extra 360 pad if I need it though.
Didn't you see that episode from a few weeks ago? All you have to do is daisy chain an xbox and a couple playstations together and bam! Robot with moods and playing chess.
Ubiquitous Pinky and the Brain reference: in one episode Brain builds "Papier-mâché Earth" from magazine inserts then lures the population of Earth to Chia-Earth by offering free t-shirts. (The actual earth is then subsequently destroyed by an asteroid.) Never under-estimate the power of the free t-shirt!
My point was actually that it could be re-branded "high density dvd", not having to change the abbreviation. Even if Bluray has more capacity, this new "high density dvd" would have a lot more than the current ~8 gigs or so. Since movies won't be distributed in the format any more the technology could still be utilized. I didn't mean to imply I was taking sides or imply HD-DVD was some how better.
I don't suppose I'm the first one to think of this (or maybe I am) but it seems like they could re-brand HD-DVD from "High Definition" to "High Density" and sell the discs as blank storage media for PCs and other devices. It'd be perfect. Am I really the only one who has thought of this?
My grandfather was an engineer for IBM for about 30 years (he retired before the first IBM PC was released) and would call joysticks "joey sticks". If I tried to correct him he would just give me a strange look. Anybody else ever hear joysticks referred to this as a joey stick?
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One thing that may or may not have been pointed out: if the anti-virus apps are subsidized there will be that much less amount of market forces i.e. motivation to improve and and invest in R and D. Furthermore if only two or three apps are subsidized those will likely be more common and the bad guys can find and exploit the weaknesses in those two or three anti-virus apps. We'll be right back where we started.
I'd also like to point out the patch for the conficker virus was released a month before the virus appeared. Only unpatched machines even can be infected. If everybody kept up to date with their windows patches a lot of viruses would be rendered ineffective before they got started (and with no anti-virus).
...I work in an IT department of a hospital in Northern California. I don't wear the stupid masks, I haven't had any shots and I've been regularly going around to every possible department/area of the hospital during this whole flue scare for (and for the last eight months). I don't have the Swine Flu or whatever they call it these days. Actually so far as I've heard no one else I work with has caught it either. I hope everybody can start to relax about this!
I don't know why but this seemed strangely appropriate.
THAT GUY
Let's cut to the chase. There are two
kinds of people: sheep and sharks. Anyone
who's a sheep is fired. Who's a sheep?
ZOIDBERG
Uh excuse me? Which is the one people
like to hug?
THAT GUY
Gutsy question, you're a shark. Sharks
are winners and they don't look back
'cause they don't have necks. Necks
are for sheep. I am proud to be the
shepherd of this herd of sharks and
I am gonna lead you to the top of this
industry of...of...
I didn't see anybody else mention it so I guess I will:
There's a whole cult following/whatever around turning a server OS into a workstation. One of the larger sites on this is called Win2008 Workstation. It has a lot of tips that are useful anyway. Apparently it's a very well performing Vista (I haven't tried it yet myself). There's a whole series of steps to getting up and running as a workstation on there, a compatibility list, everything.
Well I suppose it's off-topic but I'm still a little angry about it: I put down $5 at a video game store in EARLY OCTOBER for the PC version of Fallout 3. The guy called it a "pre-order". The term suggests I'm "ordering it" BEFORE it is released. As in I'll have a copy when I come in to pick it up. Isn't that the point? So I go in on the 31st to pick it up and they say it's sold out...what is that like four days? Nobody said anything about getting it within four days. So I'm trying to figure out what the point of pre-ordering is if you don't actually get a copy. What did I pay for?! I think I'll stop going to that particular place for anything game-related. Gamecrazy.
You can make an RSS feed out of any youtube channel, as described here:
http://www.youtube.com/rssls
I did this with my channel and put into Miro. I could then play it with both my media extender and Xbox 360. I didn't have to re-encode it or anything.
I wish I could find a more direct link but on the enclosed page if you select "MSDN Operating Systems" it will list everything you get for a subscription of $700. Every version of XP/MCE, every Vista, every server 2003 and 2008 and even betas of the next versions. No need to drop a "killabuck" on the server. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/subscriptions/aa718657.aspx Also, Comodo personal firewall works on server 2k3...
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
; Disable Themes: Provides user experience theme management. (one less thing that has to load)
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Themes]
"Start"=dword:00000004
You can then use a command like regedit /S disablethemes.reg
in a batch file have it auto-magically disable it as matter of course during windows install.
As for the other settings I discovered I it's possible to:
Here's some links:
Best way to learn automated installs:
http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/sitemap
Best set of registry tweaks I have found in one place:
http://unattended.msfn.org/unattended.xp/page/list/registry/
I've been using AVG Free for years. Then 8 came out and they added a bunch of crap including the link scanner. The link scanner I noticed prevents some sites from loading correctly and seems to slow down others. You can disable the feature but it certainly seems to discourage this. Apparently I new have to find an alternative to AVG. Seems like this was a bad business decision on their part (I certainly won't be buying the full version now).
I agree actually. I spent months researching different things that could be done with my PSP. Then left it alone for several months. Then picked it up again. And found out you can run customized versions of the latest firmware (lots of fun new features, old homebrew for 1.5 doesn't work) in tandem with the 1.5 firmware (legacy homebrew). It does take a lot of patience wading through several different sources of information and outdated forum posts.
I did find some walk-throughs on YouTube. I recommend this highly.
This same thing was asked roughly 9 months ago which got me thinking about my own solution. At first I was going to set up something like FreeNAS in a VM (easy backup, save states, etc.) but soon realized I needed more.
What I have now is a dedicated machine with four 500 gig HDDs in RAID 0+1 (I wanted 1+0 but I couldn't find the option and it's too late now).
In addition to a place on the network to store all my excessive files I can also use it for things like downloading media with Miro and sharing the media with TVersity, which allows me to stream media to my 360 etc.
In addition I added an RSYNC relationship (with deltacopy) between it and my primary PC for backing up and it is running JungleDisk (attached to Amazon's S3) for auto backup offsite.
It also is there if I want to rip and re-encode a DVD to DivX but still use my main machine for something else.
This is probably more than you were asking for but it is working pretty well for me.
If you wanted a low-power solution you could set all the above up with one of those mini-itx VIA boards (just buy a bulky enough PSU). The only devices I have are the five HDDs and a rarely used DVD-ROM. It doesn't actually take a lot of watts even with a normal board.
VIA mini-itx resource:
http://www.mini-itx.com/
DeltaCopy:
http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp
Miro:
http://www.getmiro.com/
TVersity:
http://tversity.com/
JungleDisk:
http://www.jungledisk.com/
Amazon S3:
http://aws.amazon.com/s3
Since this story was posted they've already released 4.01-m33-2 update along with a +1.5 addon. For those who care you'll know what this means, everybody else continue not caring...
Nation Novel Writing Month has been around for almost 10 years and the authors that participate have been releasing lots of novels under CC for almost all that time. And several of them have been allowing edits along with way as well. How you would find them or search examples I don't know; I suppose you could just ask in the NaNoWriMo forums to see.
After years of PC-only gaming I finally got a 360. Here's why:
- Sell/trade old games, no serials or activation required. Rentals are nice too.
- Everybody has a mic and can connect to multi-player, this doesn't vary at all (on XBL anyway). It's nice when everything is relatively standardized.
- No crippling DRM, activation, or serials to keep track of.
- And i could mention Achievements but I won't since I don't care.
One real caveat to the 360 gamepads that work with windows is that games still refer to buttons by a number as opposed to letters or "shoulder/trigger". I never memorized which button was which number so I had to write them on the face with a sharpie, making the gamepad kind of ugly. Nice to have an extra 360 pad if I need it though.
Didn't you see that episode from a few weeks ago? All you have to do is daisy chain an xbox and a couple playstations together and bam! Robot with moods and playing chess.
If only there was a book that came up with this premise...released in 2004...by a famous author...through HarperCollins... Oh wait.
Ubiquitous Pinky and the Brain reference: in one episode Brain builds "Papier-mâché Earth" from magazine inserts then lures the population of Earth to Chia-Earth by offering free t-shirts. (The actual earth is then subsequently destroyed by an asteroid.) Never under-estimate the power of the free t-shirt!
My point was actually that it could be re-branded "high density dvd", not having to change the abbreviation. Even if Bluray has more capacity, this new "high density dvd" would have a lot more than the current ~8 gigs or so. Since movies won't be distributed in the format any more the technology could still be utilized. I didn't mean to imply I was taking sides or imply HD-DVD was some how better.
I don't suppose I'm the first one to think of this (or maybe I am) but it seems like they could re-brand HD-DVD from "High Definition" to "High Density" and sell the discs as blank storage media for PCs and other devices. It'd be perfect. Am I really the only one who has thought of this?
Free t-shirt? Vista is the greatest!!
My grandfather was an engineer for IBM for about 30 years (he retired before the first IBM PC was released) and would call joysticks "joey sticks". If I tried to correct him he would just give me a strange look. Anybody else ever hear joysticks referred to this as a joey stick?
If Lucas wrote it I think I'll skip it. Also, that female jedi looks more comedic that serious.
Best console of all time has to be the Zaltair.