an IBM mainframe, where they oredered an upgrade, and the tech came and *removed* a board
Another IBM trick was when you wanted to expand the memory on your leased/rented IBM system and the engineer came out and enabled the additional memory bank you had all along, and increased your monthly payment. IBM's profit margin was so great on mainframes at the time that they were ahead of the game building in options that the customer might never actually use.
And then there was the COBOL compiler that had a timing loop whose sole purpose was to get you to either buy the more expensive improved compiler, or a faster mainframe. Either way IBM won.
Hard to believe that IBM could fall from such a position. But they did, and so someday will Microsoft.
I've long considered the Outer Space Treaty the biggest - and most arrogant - land grab in history when our so-called governments decided that none of its citizens could own anything off of the Earth itself. In essence, they have taken the entire rest of the Universe and put it off limits for private ownership. How dare they?!
Of course none of the Outer Space Treaty actually matters since the truth is that land, as always, will belong to he (or she) who can claim it and defend it afterwards! We don't need no stinking treaty.
Coincidence that this happens the day MS finally releases their long delayed SQL Server 2005. Maybe they know something about the database market that has escaped the rest of us so far.
Once upon a long time ago I worked for Control Data Corporation (anyone remember them?). CDC had a trick, which wasn't new to them, of re-badging essentially the same system with a new model number and a lower price. An example at the time was their popular CDC 3300 mainframe becoming the CDC 3170. The only difference between the models was that the CDC 3300 had a 1.75uS clock, compared to the CDC 3300's 1.25uS clock. Move one wire (the right wire!) inside and the CDC 3170 became the CDC 3300 in all respects except for the name badge on the equipment bays and console.
Why do this I wondered? The problem was in government contracts. After you'd paid back the design costs addition computers could be pumped out at a cheaper price while still both making a profit and remaining competitive. The fly in this ointment is that the government, who often bought quantities of the earlier models where cost was not the first concern (when has cost ever been a concern to governments spending tax money?). I was told that the government contracts stipulated that if you ever lower the price on something you've sold them you have to rebate them the entire difference on every system delivered. Of course that would bankrupt any company, so they resorted to this rather transparent subterfuge.
Perhaps some form of that's what's happening here as well.
The important thing when you RTFM is that Sony is admitting that they used RootKit DRM. Now they offer non-RK DRM to replace it. Boy I want to see them go down hard over this one. I want significant jail time for the entire chain of command in Sony that authorized this in any form.
Although you have to admit, a RootKit plus Tunes for only $14.99 is quite a bargain. Especially one as well documented as this one is turning out to be. How long before the OSS version is released?
Has DRM ever contributed to the sale of another CD?
Why not just buy a Dell with Red Hat Enterprise 4.0 pre-loaded
You clearly haven't tried to buy a Dell with a non-MS operating system. Let's just say they don't make it easy. In one case recently they even were charging $50 more for the Linux option without Windows.
In may ways Dell is becoming a niche player. Sure Intel and Microsoft are still a big niche, but not the only choice they once appeared to be.
When the next disruptive communications technology
The next disruptive communications technology is already here -- and they're trying to apply the broadcast flag to every portion of it. It's the ability to not only watch television any time afterwards that you wish, but anywhere you wish as well!
Streaming doesn't work well with my connection. And no, why should I have do use capture and rip-to tools when it could have been provided in MP3 to start with?
We should be demanding clean, uncluttered, format neutral downloads of material that they are offering anyway from every provider.
far more feasible and profoundly less expensive approach to hot fusion
I recall when Cold Fusion was actually considered a possibility for essentially limitless clean energy that a bunch of environmentalist clowns arrived on the scene proclaiming that cheap clean energy would be the worst thing that could possibly happen. That, my Gawd, with cheap clean energy we would just end up with more people using up even more of the planet even faster. While my memory may have faded over time, a prominent name I believe was at the forefront of these claims at the time was Jeremy Rifkin.
I certainly expect their reappearance any time now.
Not a statement I'd be making casually about any employer these days. With the way the current laws are, companies have been able to mis-use the court system to get subpoenas issued forcing providers to reveal anonymous poster's real names with the alleged intent to pursue a court suit for illegal activities, only to drop said suit once they've identified the poster. Then they harass/fire the formerly anonymous poster.
The world follows the tech people, and the tech people say its time to ditch Microsoft. I see something happening.
Gee, can we ditch Intel too? All I'm seeing these days is Intel being trounced by AMD in yet another benchmark.
Personally I'm happy to see this happening because I remember when Intel completely controlled product release cycles, and was in no hurry to bring out the next generation until they'd wrung the last dollar out of the previous one. AMD came on the scene with a 386DX-40 and things have never been the same since. Even IBM competed with Intel at that time, but dropped out soon afterwards. Competed with Microsoft for a bit (OS/2) before dropping what was really a better OS at the time.
My wife has been looking these last few weeks for a fileserver for her small business -- three empolyees performing accounting and tax preparation. She considered possibly wanting an application server as well as fileserver. The Dell "solution" was close to $3000, with nearly half of that the cost for Microsoft Server 2003. Ouch!
Have gotten her to finally consider that maybe all she needs is a good chunk of network storage. I've shown her how she can put 400GB of mirrored storage onto the network with long warranties on the disc drives using a NetGear SC101 for $600. She's considering it right now.
While Unisys may aim towards the higher-end markets than this, a Linux solution with good multiprocessor support and zero cost can make a significant difference in this ever increasingly competative environment -- especially if you're flogging Intel iron against AMD Opterons.
Besides, some things really do run better on Linux. IIRC Oracle 9i is a prime example.
The Pentium M is still the chip to beat in this application. These aren't the fastest chips produced, but they've got power enough for the usual business apps.
That's interesting, since a poster further up said that the PM desktop chips would have beaten AMD.
Administering the threads carries an overhead, though, which means that dual core processors are never exactly twice as fast as their single core counterparts.
Sometimes they're faster.
How can this be?
Context switching between threads expensive in terms of cycles on a microprocessor. A second processor can cut down immensely on context switching - or even virtually eliminate it when only two threads are active.
it really seems funny to me how all Intels bashers (aka. Mac fans) suddenly became Intel enthusiasts
That's because they never were Intel bashers. They are all Steve fans, and what Steve says - RULES! (Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. He's still living in yesterday's truths.)
It's rather a lot like Scientology. You just have to change the names of the players, and keep forking out the money.
The article also notes that Apple has continued to learn from hackers' efforts to crack the operating system and has greatly strengthened the TPM protections.
Time for the next hack to come along.
Until every byte of code verifies for itself that it is running on genuine Apple hardware before it will execute, I'm not sure if Apple can ever close this door.
Maybe this experiment will eventually prove that TPM itself is impossible to achieve when more people are working to break your system than are employeed by Apple to defend it.
Hey, Steve, want to reconsider that move to Intel now?
OK, so I understand that Sony did a bad thing with the rootkit. But I don't immediately understand the link to Blizzard. Surely there are other "rootkits" around (think Hacker Defender)
Well, for one thing the Sony CD is a lot cheaper than HD-Gold - and you get music along with it.
This whole rootkit business leads one to wonder what happens if you play the Sony CD in an instance of a Virtual Machine (ala VMware). Does it only root the virtual machine? Can you burn endless CD's, 3 at a time? Since Sonly has clearly granted you a licence to burn the number of CD's permitted by the DRM, can you now put them out of business selling yours on the street? Inquiring minds blah blah blah...
And speaking of WoW, you mean there is no game hack that changes it's name each instance so that The Warden will never have it in its signature file?
1: Install WoW.
2: Install Sony Music CD.
3: Install Cheat Hacks.
4: Win at WoW.
5: Profit!
6: Discover that Sony RookKit drops frame rate to unacceptable levels.
7: Buy new AMD64 gaming system.
8: Discover that game gold no good in the real world.
9: Profit^-1.
Slashdot Mirror
Another IBM trick was when you wanted to expand the memory on your leased/rented IBM system and the engineer came out and enabled the additional memory bank you had all along, and increased your monthly payment. IBM's profit margin was so great on mainframes at the time that they were ahead of the game building in options that the customer might never actually use.
And then there was the COBOL compiler that had a timing loop whose sole purpose was to get you to either buy the more expensive improved compiler, or a faster mainframe. Either way IBM won.
Hard to believe that IBM could fall from such a position. But they did, and so someday will Microsoft.
Of course none of the Outer Space Treaty actually matters since the truth is that land, as always, will belong to he (or she) who can claim it and defend it afterwards! We don't need no stinking treaty.
Coincidence that this happens the day MS finally releases their long delayed SQL Server 2005. Maybe they know something about the database market that has escaped the rest of us so far.
Why do this I wondered? The problem was in government contracts. After you'd paid back the design costs addition computers could be pumped out at a cheaper price while still both making a profit and remaining competitive. The fly in this ointment is that the government, who often bought quantities of the earlier models where cost was not the first concern (when has cost ever been a concern to governments spending tax money?). I was told that the government contracts stipulated that if you ever lower the price on something you've sold them you have to rebate them the entire difference on every system delivered. Of course that would bankrupt any company, so they resorted to this rather transparent subterfuge.
Perhaps some form of that's what's happening here as well.
Although you have to admit, a RootKit plus Tunes for only $14.99 is quite a bargain. Especially one as well documented as this one is turning out to be. How long before the OSS version is released?
Has DRM ever contributed to the sale of another CD?
You clearly haven't tried to buy a Dell with a non-MS operating system. Let's just say they don't make it easy. In one case recently they even were charging $50 more for the Linux option without Windows.
In may ways Dell is becoming a niche player. Sure Intel and Microsoft are still a big niche, but not the only choice they once appeared to be.
Could it possibly be because he's an idiot that too many other people listen to (which doesn't say much for them either)?
Next you're going to tell me that SAT does not stand for Saturday Afternoon Test.
The next disruptive communications technology is already here -- and they're trying to apply the broadcast flag to every portion of it. It's the ability to not only watch television any time afterwards that you wish, but anywhere you wish as well!
We should be demanding clean, uncluttered, format neutral downloads of material that they are offering anyway from every provider.
Q.E.D. = Quite Easily Demonstrated.
I recall when Cold Fusion was actually considered a possibility for essentially limitless clean energy that a bunch of environmentalist clowns arrived on the scene proclaiming that cheap clean energy would be the worst thing that could possibly happen. That, my Gawd, with cheap clean energy we would just end up with more people using up even more of the planet even faster. While my memory may have faded over time, a prominent name I believe was at the forefront of these claims at the time was Jeremy Rifkin.
I certainly expect their reappearance any time now.
Not a statement I'd be making casually about any employer these days. With the way the current laws are, companies have been able to mis-use the court system to get subpoenas issued forcing providers to reveal anonymous poster's real names with the alleged intent to pursue a court suit for illegal activities, only to drop said suit once they've identified the poster. Then they harass/fire the formerly anonymous poster.
One such case can be found here.
This should be a Slashdot article of its own since the person is now suing for this misuse of the court system -- and I hope he wins big!
Gee, can we ditch Intel too? All I'm seeing these days is Intel being trounced by AMD in yet another benchmark.
Personally I'm happy to see this happening because I remember when Intel completely controlled product release cycles, and was in no hurry to bring out the next generation until they'd wrung the last dollar out of the previous one. AMD came on the scene with a 386DX-40 and things have never been the same since. Even IBM competed with Intel at that time, but dropped out soon afterwards. Competed with Microsoft for a bit (OS/2) before dropping what was really a better OS at the time.
Have gotten her to finally consider that maybe all she needs is a good chunk of network storage. I've shown her how she can put 400GB of mirrored storage onto the network with long warranties on the disc drives using a NetGear SC101 for $600. She's considering it right now.
While Unisys may aim towards the higher-end markets than this, a Linux solution with good multiprocessor support and zero cost can make a significant difference in this ever increasingly competative environment -- especially if you're flogging Intel iron against AMD Opterons.
Besides, some things really do run better on Linux. IIRC Oracle 9i is a prime example.
That's interesting, since a poster further up said that the PM desktop chips would have beaten AMD.
Sometimes they're faster.
How can this be?
Context switching between threads expensive in terms of cycles on a microprocessor. A second processor can cut down immensely on context switching - or even virtually eliminate it when only two threads are active.
I thought Intel was going to be the performance/watt leader.
I thought this was Steve Jobs's big justification for moving to Intel.
I thought when you're hugely and provably wrong that people quit listening to you and buy better products.
Or did I slip into The Twilight Zone again without realizing it?
Apple Profit Margin 9.6% * A Little.
Which would you rather have?
That's because they never were Intel bashers. They are all Steve fans, and what Steve says - RULES! (Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain. He's still living in yesterday's truths.)
It's rather a lot like Scientology. You just have to change the names of the players, and keep forking out the money.
Time for the next hack to come along.
Until every byte of code verifies for itself that it is running on genuine Apple hardware before it will execute, I'm not sure if Apple can ever close this door.
Maybe this experiment will eventually prove that TPM itself is impossible to achieve when more people are working to break your system than are employeed by Apple to defend it.
Hey, Steve, want to reconsider that move to Intel now?
This could mean that it automatically reboots itself for you instead of hanging at the BSOD.
Personally I prefer the VMware approach that only the virtual machine dies on any non-recoverable error.
Well, for one thing the Sony CD is a lot cheaper than HD-Gold - and you get music along with it.
And speaking of WoW, you mean there is no game hack that changes it's name each instance so that The Warden will never have it in its signature file?
1: Install WoW.
2: Install Sony Music CD.
3: Install Cheat Hacks.
4: Win at WoW.
5: Profit!
6: Discover that Sony RookKit drops frame rate to unacceptable levels.
7: Buy new AMD64 gaming system.
8: Discover that game gold no good in the real world.
9: Profit^-1.