IMHO the best "improvements" that XP has over 2K was the built in CD Burning,.zip support, and the ability to fool old programs into thinking they're running on an older OS.
I wish they have never put.zip support in. Handling zip as a "folder" is unpleasant. It insists in searching through zip archives as though they were folders. When you open files in a zip folder it stores them in some temp directory. Also, when the files are large or heavily compressed the performance tends to drop, which is not what you expect if you are used to working with folders.
For those who live in countries where voting IS compulsory, ever have an instance when there was no one you wanted to vote for?
No. In Australia we have parties like the Fishing Party. No matter how whacky your views are there is a good chance they are represented by some party. Also in the elections for the Senate you have proportional representation. If you get 1% of the votes you get 1% of the seats.
On the other hand if you want to vote for someone who is actually going to get in, well I guess there aren't as many options there.
The hilarious thing is that all along it has had a serious conflict in the issue of the existence of magic, due to errors (intentional and accidental) in copying, and the work of later authors.
Some voters trying to vote Democrat had the votes displayed as Republican, and officals weren't able to "fix" the machines (maybe that should be "fix further" Adjusts tinfoil hat).
I can't really agree with this. The major problems came when Microsoft decided, after about two years in development since the start in ~2002, that they were to change the foundation of "Longhorn" from Windows XP SP2 to Windows Server 2003. This was also by the time Microsoft changed their goals of what their next OS should be. Yes, when it was in the middle of development! Development managers may start feeling dizzy now and consider leaving Microsoft.:-p Needless to say, when you do this in any kind of large project and most definitely the largest operating system in the world, you'll have a big price to pay.
Your recollection of this is incorrect.
Microsoft went down the path of a complete rewrite. They were having so many problems (conflicts, bugs etc) that they discovered that it was largely impossible to bring the bug count down to a minimum. Their own real and practical option was a restart on a working code base, Window 2003.
Hey good point. I just noticed it seemed to be broken in IE 6 too. I think I did have a version working under IE6 too. Unfortunately I don't have a whole lot of versions of this code in the repository and much of the code was written pretty late at night:(. The page in question has a fair chunk of server side code, and the particular section of javascript is only a small section of ~1000 lines of javascript. So it is a little hard to separate the specific problem.
I haven't forgotten about this issue, I've now had the time to actually work on it.
Of the two errors I hit I wasn't able to reproduce one (unable to select items in a dynamically created select list) on the latest version of opera. As it turns out I was testing against an earlier version of Opera.
I was able to reproduce the other bug (set options using innerHTML). I've built a test case and submitted it to Opera. The test case is here.
I think what we are seeing here is that they expected the DRM to be broken at some point. If they are smart they would have recognised that it would be beaten at some point. So they had at least one patch ready to deploy a new DRM scheme.
HD content from a Blu-ray or HD-DVD disc requires quite a bit of processing power; Cyberlink recommends using a dual-core processor like the Intel Pentium D, Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon X2. As a graphics card you should at least use a nVidia GeForce 7600 or ATI Radeon X1600 series with a minimum of 256MB video memory.
Why? What is it about Blu/HD that requires so mch processing power? Is it the compression standard? DRM? What kind of processors are the sticking in the consumer players they match that kind of processing power?
I've replied already, but I thought I might add in another side experience.
I've recently had some problems with the USB on my laptop. When I plugged in a flash drive windows would lock up completely. No Ctrl-Alt-Del, no nothing. The only option was a hard restart.
Given the problems I had been having with explorer, I wasn't sure whether this was a hardware or a software error. So after checking out the various event logs for issues and finding nothing, I had a brainwave: knoppix.
When I booted into knoppix and plugged a flash drive in it didn't appear (ie probably hardware error). However knoppix didn't crash. I'm by no means a linux expert, but I know enough to run dmesg to see the results. And lo and behold, I get a helpful message telling me something along the lines that it couldn't access the USB device and that it might be a losse cable issue.
The point of this is that a hardware problem under linux did not make the machine non-functional. Under windows it did. In this situation Linux was more stable.
To offer a counter experience, I've been running XP on my laptop for about a year and a half and I am overdue for my second reformat/reinstall. This is a development machine and I work long hours so it tends to get really hammered. Despite that I do treat it well.
My last reformat was because it was getting sluggish and because windows would not log out. In all cases, when tryint to shut the machine down it would hang forever on the "windows is shutting down" screen.
This one is because windows explorer has borked and increased sluggishness. Explorer problems have included: 1. can't right click or drag anything from the start menu 2. does not respect my registry setting to disable freaking baloon boxes from the system tray.
I've also had a couple of random BSODs.
BTW this is on a Thinkpad, arguably some of the best hardware available for running windows.
Correct me if I am wrong, but won't this break AJAX, and well pretty much any page that uses heavy Javascript. The article talks of replacing client side Javascript with the HTML it would generate. This would suggest that Javscript would no longer be executed on the client. No more onchange/onclick events.
That is an interesting way to clasify downtime, but downtime means the machine is unavailable. It doesn't mean you planned for it to be unavailable.
Anway I run a few debian servers at work (about the same number as I have windows servers), and as the sibling comment said, a reboot only needs to occur if there is an update to the kernel. Downtime for my debian boxes only occurs when either there is a kernel update or an update to some of the daemons (service) they run. Typically it takes only a few seconds update the daemon and restart it. I've also noticed that my debian servers seem to boot up faster than my windows servers. YMMV.
But they are socialists... How is that possible? Capitalism roxor!
</sarcasm>
You forgot to mention, you also need to fix the bugs in the new features you added...
Someone who wants to sell to google? They must get through a *lot* of machines, this would give them some buying power.
No. But I think you need one of these chips to calculate it.
Yeah. The other thing that springs to mind in Heat is just how load the guns are. Compared to what you normally hear in movies.
The other feature Redmond needs to work on: "not listening to a single damn thing Adobe Reader says".
Damn straight. I've removed acrobat and I would reccommend that anyone else who can, do the same. There are free readers our there.
The incessant requests for random updates (photo viewers etc) drove me to it.
IMHO the best "improvements" that XP has over 2K was the built in CD Burning, .zip support, and the ability to fool old programs into thinking they're running on an older OS.
.zip support in. Handling zip as a "folder" is unpleasant. It insists in searching through zip archives as though they were folders. When you open files in a zip folder it stores them in some temp directory. Also, when the files are large or heavily compressed the performance tends to drop, which is not what you expect if you are used to working with folders.
I wish they have never put
How about an election where the choices aren't limited to far right or far left?
What exactly do you mean by that?
From the persepective of the rest of the world, the choices in the US are limited to the far right and the right.
For those who live in countries where voting IS compulsory, ever have an instance when there was no one you wanted to vote for?
No. In Australia we have parties like the Fishing Party. No matter how whacky your views are there is a good chance they are represented by some party. Also in the elections for the Senate you have proportional representation. If you get 1% of the votes you get 1% of the seats.
On the other hand if you want to vote for someone who is actually going to get in, well I guess there aren't as many options there.
Maybe you should start reading them. If it is flamebait, it is very well researched and referenced flamebait.
The hilarious thing is that all along it has had a serious conflict in the issue of the existence of magic, due to errors (intentional and accidental) in copying, and the work of later authors.
Got a refernce on that?
And Chucj Norris could roundhouse kick the films into your brain.
Not entirely. Read the full article.
Some voters trying to vote Democrat had the votes displayed as Republican, and officals weren't able to "fix" the machines (maybe that should be "fix further" Adjusts tinfoil hat).
Your recollection of this is incorrect.
Microsoft went down the path of a complete rewrite. They were having so many problems (conflicts, bugs etc) that they discovered that it was largely impossible to bring the bug count down to a minimum. Their own real and practical option was a restart on a working code base, Window 2003.
Hey good point. I just noticed it seemed to be broken in IE 6 too. I think I did have a version working under IE6 too. Unfortunately I don't have a whole lot of versions of this code in the repository and much of the code was written pretty late at night :(. The page in question has a fair chunk of server side code, and the particular section of javascript is only a small section of ~1000 lines of javascript. So it is a little hard to separate the specific problem.
I haven't forgotten about this issue, I've now had the time to actually work on it.
Of the two errors I hit I wasn't able to reproduce one (unable to select items in a dynamically created select list) on the latest version of opera. As it turns out I was testing against an earlier version of Opera.
I was able to reproduce the other bug (set options using innerHTML). I've built a test case and submitted it to Opera. The test case is here.
I don't think that is the case.
I think what we are seeing here is that they expected the DRM to be broken at some point. If they are smart they would have recognised that it would be beaten at some point. So they had at least one patch ready to deploy a new DRM scheme.
4. Dual-core processor + 256 MB graphics card
HD content from a Blu-ray or HD-DVD disc requires quite a bit of processing power; Cyberlink recommends using a dual-core processor like the Intel Pentium D, Core 2 Duo or AMD Athlon X2. As a graphics card you should at least use a nVidia GeForce 7600 or ATI Radeon X1600 series with a minimum of 256MB video memory.
Why? What is it about Blu/HD that requires so mch processing power? Is it the compression standard? DRM? What kind of processors are the sticking in the consumer players they match that kind of processing power?
I've replied already, but I thought I might add in another side experience.
I've recently had some problems with the USB on my laptop. When I plugged in a flash drive windows would lock up completely. No Ctrl-Alt-Del, no nothing. The only option was a hard restart.
Given the problems I had been having with explorer, I wasn't sure whether this was a hardware or a software error. So after checking out the various event logs for issues and finding nothing, I had a brainwave: knoppix.
When I booted into knoppix and plugged a flash drive in it didn't appear (ie probably hardware error). However knoppix didn't crash. I'm by no means a linux expert, but I know enough to run dmesg to see the results. And lo and behold, I get a helpful message telling me something along the lines that it couldn't access the USB device and that it might be a losse cable issue.
The point of this is that a hardware problem under linux did not make the machine non-functional. Under windows it did. In this situation Linux was more stable.
I'm just glad that my 2 year-old laptop (P4, 2.66GHz, 512MB, 32 MB NVidia 5100)
Ha ha. That isn't a laptop, that is a mobile toasted sandwich maker.
To offer a counter experience, I've been running XP on my laptop for about a year and a half and I am overdue for my second reformat/reinstall. This is a development machine and I work long hours so it tends to get really hammered. Despite that I do treat it well.
My last reformat was because it was getting sluggish and because windows would not log out. In all cases, when tryint to shut the machine down it would hang forever on the "windows is shutting down" screen.
This one is because windows explorer has borked and increased sluggishness. Explorer problems have included:
1. can't right click or drag anything from the start menu
2. does not respect my registry setting to disable freaking baloon boxes from the system tray.
I've also had a couple of random BSODs.
BTW this is on a Thinkpad, arguably some of the best hardware available for running windows.
Correct me if I am wrong, but won't this break AJAX, and well pretty much any page that uses heavy Javascript. The article talks of replacing client side Javascript with the HTML it would generate. This would suggest that Javscript would no longer be executed on the client. No more onchange/onclick events.
B. Four married posters under 40
There are 3 more people like me? I fear for this community.
Wait, think of the possibilities.
I accuse George W Bush of sexually abusing me.
(this is a joke for those who don't get it)
That is an interesting way to clasify downtime, but downtime means the machine is unavailable. It doesn't mean you planned for it to be unavailable.
Anway I run a few debian servers at work (about the same number as I have windows servers), and as the sibling comment said, a reboot only needs to occur if there is an update to the kernel. Downtime for my debian boxes only occurs when either there is a kernel update or an update to some of the daemons (service) they run. Typically it takes only a few seconds update the daemon and restart it. I've also noticed that my debian servers seem to boot up faster than my windows servers. YMMV.