Everytime I read a/. article about Office there is a huge Open Office vs. MS Office debate.
Why does nobody mention Ability Office?
http://www.ability.com/
$74.99 for the entire suite, or $59.99 if you don't want the paint application. It doesn't have 100% of Office's features, but it is pretty nice and a good alternative.
Are the only choices we consider here MS or open source?
A free Windows-compatible OS which is not encumbered with all kinds of DRM, backdoors, phone home security updates, Internet Explorer, has native support for all the device drivers that Windows supports, and means that I don't have to learn Linux / migrate all of my current software practices? How can this possibly be too late?
Personally I'd far sooner consider ReactOS than any of the other much touted Linux alternatives. Will that buy me brownie points on/. ? Maybe not, but it's probably true for most people.
Our genuine customers deserve the best experience, and so over time we have made the following services and benefits available only to them: Windows Update service, Download Center, Internet Explorer 7, Windows Defender, and Windows Media Player 11, as well as access to a full range of updates including non-security related benefits.
In other words, pirating Windows may be the best way to get hold of a copy that does not violate antitrust laws.
Maybe America is rich with talent in most areas, but sometimes companies require specialist workers responsible for creating core technologies that can underpin an entire line of business. You want to create a new 3D engine? Hire the best in the world to make it shine brighter than the rest, then hire the best Americans you can find to build applications around it. Avionics? Same thing. Engineers? Same thing.
I have to say that as an H1-B worker I feel that the whole illegal immigration/Mexico debate is creating a situation which will eventually make it open-season for criticising any form of immigration, whether it be legal and justified or not.
.. that one of the competing laboritories has hired interplanetary workers to cut down costs. Critics argue that this new form of offshoring could do serious damage to the future of the country, but investors were pleased to hear that initial testing has been successful.
Other than the TCP/NetBIOS stuff (that never, to the best of my knowledge, had a remote exploit that let anyone take control of the box), a box running 98SE runs no services. No uPNP exploit. No DCOM/RPC. No Messenger. No nothing. For all intents and purposes, it's already firewalled when you plug it into the wall.
Then the best of your knowledge is sadly mistaken.
Those are just a few issues with the TCP/IP stack, NETBIOS, uPNP on Windows 98 that I found within 60 seconds of searching Google. I remember running 98SE back in the day - there used to be patch after patch for it, just like for any modern OS today. Don't kid yourself or anyone else that 98 is a secure OS. Likening it to being firewalled out of the box is rediculous.
DRM? What DRM? You can't do DRM when you've got no security model.
98 has DRM in WMP7+ just like XP does.
98 runs services also. They're not user processes, so they don't appear in Task manager on 98. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean that they don't exist. How do you think NETBIOS works? By magic?
If I had to recommend a secure OS to anyone, 98 would come way down my list. I'd at least choose something that was still vendor supported.
OK, so this is sure to be an unpopular post, but does it matter as much these days if you don't have linux support from the hardware manufacturer? In the ideal world, of course it does. In reality you can install VMWare or VirtualPC and run as many Linux distros as you like on your Windows box. For a start the virtual machines emulate older hardware so Linux is virtually guaranteed to run with the drivers it ships with, and with all the new virtualization technologies and multi-core processors the performance hit should not be huge. So it's not the perfect solution, and it won't play Quake at 200fps, but it'll run all your desktop apps and dev environments.
Maybe you wouldn't trust a solution like this to run a public webserver, for example, but then who does that from a laptop anyway?
I can't wait for the people to have their say in the next election btw Jeff, shame they screwed up the last one, eh? I like it how people get defensive about their country on a blog, yet let their Government screw them repeatedly in real life. Oh the irony.
.. and working here in the US in the technology sector. I consider myself quite valuable to my company and love working here, but would not hesitate to leave if the US government started mandating implants for immigrant and/or guest workers.
What the hell is going on? I come to this country legally, I contribute to the economy, I pay my taxes, and now some company is lobbying the goverment to stick a chip in my arm? Fuck you, VeriChip.
For the record, as a guest worker who was originally enthralled with the prospect of working here I am now dismayed with the Government of this country. The DMCA, the Patriot act, the 'WMD' war in Iraq, the NSA spying, the 'State secrets' defense, the complete lawlessness of the Bush administration despite the attrocious approval ratings, and the lack of retaliation from the people of this country to defend the basic rights in their constitution is, in my view, steadily degrading everything that I once viewed to be so great about the US. Chipping guest workers will be several steps too far for me.
The way things are going in a couple of years I may have to consider moving to China...
Shocking new statistics reveal that approximately a third of Internet traffic is generated by technologies that are popular amongst Internet users worldwide....
WTF?
Is this culture limited to a niche audience? E.g. the Slashdot crowd?
Taking a look at the real world for a moment we have millions of people embracing DRM because it comes in a nice shiny iPod package, the MPAA telling us that unless you have end-to-end HDCP you won't be watching the HD content you just bought in HD, TPM for the next generation of operating systems, the RIAA telling us that ripping a CD we bought to a PMP is not fair use while suing people who can't afford to defend themselves left, right, and center, companies whose core busines model is to buy IP then do nothing more than sue alleged infringers, and congressmen who push legislation for the studios and recording industries that deteriorate our rights in the digital world with seemingly no reckoning.
Is this new movement kind of like Greenpeace then? It's cool, we support it, but really nothing much is going to change?
And how is the ISP supposed to be able to detect the difference between encrypted and non-encrypted binary data?
By performing a MITM attack during the public key exchange when any connection is first established (the details of the exchange necessarily being part of the bittorrent protocol). The ISP is perfectly situated in terms of routing to do this and because keys must be exchanged early on in the session there is probably not too much overhead associated with doing so on a large scale (i.e. for many customers and many connections per customer). I could see it becomming a feature on high-end network hardware.
Maybe wiretap laws might prevent it, or the DMCA, but IANAL so I don't know for sure.
Does anyone actually *want* the source code of a root kit to be published online? Then not only will you have viruses masking themselves using XCP, but viruses with this ability built-in. You know how it works..
Actually the most likely reason this is done in the X-Fi is because the whole idea is that you're likely to be performing a ton of DSP on it. EQ, crystalizer, dynamic adjust, spatialization, and so forth. Now, the crystalizer in itself could easily add frequncy harmonics far above the original sample rate (or half sample rate, before someone shoots me down on that:P), and you probably want all of those other lovely DSP ops to be carried out on a very high resolution representation of the signal rather than at the original resolution, or you're going to introduce a lot more error.
Sometimes, Slashdot is full of useful information. Othertimes, it is full of people who would like to think they are experts talking complete and utter bullshit.
You can, very easily, make audio sound better than a CD, or an MP3, or even *gasp* the original recording!
Key words: "sound better", *not* "become a more accurate digitized representation of the original waveform".
You can improve the dynamic compression, compensating for typical processes such as employed by MP3 encoders and preperation for transfer to audio CD (obviously the typical MP3 has a compound effect of these). For MP3s you can make a massive difference in terms of fidelity simply by performing some frequency harmonic reconstruction (check out the DFX plug-in for WinAMP). You can even add *gasp* harmonics above the original sample rate! Perhaps providing a wider stereo seperation for lower frequencies might help (as some lossly audio encoders do the opposite here). Perhaps noise attenuation algorithms will help older or poorly mastered material.
Even the equiptment used to record a master will have certain properties and characteristics that can be compensated for by a DSP during playback. Sometimes it's even just nice that cards like the X-Fi have such powerful DSPs capable of using such high resolutions to compensate for the reproduction problems of your crappy home stereo system without completely distorting the sound.
Honestly, I don't claim to be an expert in the field of audio myself, but so many of the posts here are complete tosh I felt compelled to write for once.
I for one am looking forward to upgrading my Audigy 2 ZS!
Slashdot Mirror
Everytime I read a /. article about Office there is a huge Open Office vs. MS Office debate.
Why does nobody mention Ability Office?
http://www.ability.com/
$74.99 for the entire suite, or $59.99 if you don't want the paint application. It doesn't have 100% of Office's features, but it is pretty nice and a good alternative.
Are the only choices we consider here MS or open source?
A free Windows-compatible OS which is not encumbered with all kinds of DRM, backdoors, phone home security updates, Internet Explorer, has native support for all the device drivers that Windows supports, and means that I don't have to learn Linux / migrate all of my current software practices? How can this possibly be too late?
Personally I'd far sooner consider ReactOS than any of the other much touted Linux alternatives. Will that buy me brownie points on /. ? Maybe not, but it's probably true for most people.
The Google search engine is not a 'destination'.
Our genuine customers deserve the best experience, and so over time we have made the following services and benefits available only to them: Windows Update service, Download Center, Internet Explorer 7, Windows Defender, and Windows Media Player 11, as well as access to a full range of updates including non-security related benefits.
In other words, pirating Windows may be the best way to get hold of a copy that does not violate antitrust laws.
That's a very broad generalization to be making.
Yes but why make the assumption that these companies are seeking H1-B workers purely due to costings?
Maybe America is rich with talent in most areas, but sometimes companies require specialist workers responsible for creating core technologies that can underpin an entire line of business. You want to create a new 3D engine? Hire the best in the world to make it shine brighter than the rest, then hire the best Americans you can find to build applications around it. Avionics? Same thing. Engineers? Same thing. I have to say that as an H1-B worker I feel that the whole illegal immigration/Mexico debate is creating a situation which will eventually make it open-season for criticising any form of immigration, whether it be legal and justified or not.
If those 5000 workers at Sun were so talented, why could they not help Sun go in a direction which created enough value to keep their jobs?
.. that one of the competing laboritories has hired interplanetary workers to cut down costs. Critics argue that this new form of offshoring could do serious damage to the future of the country, but investors were pleased to hear that initial testing has been successful.
Other than the TCP/NetBIOS stuff (that never, to the best of my knowledge, had a remote exploit that let anyone take control of the box), a box running 98SE runs no services. No uPNP exploit. No DCOM/RPC. No Messenger. No nothing. For all intents and purposes, it's already firewalled when you plug it into the wall.
Then the best of your knowledge is sadly mistaken.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/archive/win98/dow nloads/igmpw98.mspx?mfr=true
http://www.cert-in.org.in/vulnerability/civn-2005- 32.htm
http://www.securityfocus.com/bid/1163
http://www.cert-rs.tche.br/listas/infoseg/msg00260 .html
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin /ms01-059.mspx
Those are just a few issues with the TCP/IP stack, NETBIOS, uPNP on Windows 98 that I found within 60 seconds of searching Google. I remember running 98SE back in the day - there used to be patch after patch for it, just like for any modern OS today. Don't kid yourself or anyone else that 98 is a secure OS. Likening it to being firewalled out of the box is rediculous.
DRM? What DRM? You can't do DRM when you've got no security model.
98 has DRM in WMP7+ just like XP does.
98 runs services also. They're not user processes, so they don't appear in Task manager on 98. Just because you can't see them doesn't mean that they don't exist. How do you think NETBIOS works? By magic?
If I had to recommend a secure OS to anyone, 98 would come way down my list. I'd at least choose something that was still vendor supported.
OK, so this is sure to be an unpopular post, but does it matter as much these days if you don't have linux support from the hardware manufacturer? In the ideal world, of course it does. In reality you can install VMWare or VirtualPC and run as many Linux distros as you like on your Windows box. For a start the virtual machines emulate older hardware so Linux is virtually guaranteed to run with the drivers it ships with, and with all the new virtualization technologies and multi-core processors the performance hit should not be huge. So it's not the perfect solution, and it won't play Quake at 200fps, but it'll run all your desktop apps and dev environments.
;)
Maybe you wouldn't trust a solution like this to run a public webserver, for example, but then who does that from a laptop anyway?
You may now mod down
Ah, the predictable response I was waiting for.
I can't wait for the people to have their say in the next election btw Jeff, shame they screwed up the last one, eh? I like it how people get defensive about their country on a blog, yet let their Government screw them repeatedly in real life. Oh the irony.
.. and working here in the US in the technology sector. I consider myself quite valuable to my company and love working here, but would not hesitate to leave if the US government started mandating implants for immigrant and/or guest workers. What the hell is going on? I come to this country legally, I contribute to the economy, I pay my taxes, and now some company is lobbying the goverment to stick a chip in my arm? Fuck you, VeriChip. For the record, as a guest worker who was originally enthralled with the prospect of working here I am now dismayed with the Government of this country. The DMCA, the Patriot act, the 'WMD' war in Iraq, the NSA spying, the 'State secrets' defense, the complete lawlessness of the Bush administration despite the attrocious approval ratings, and the lack of retaliation from the people of this country to defend the basic rights in their constitution is, in my view, steadily degrading everything that I once viewed to be so great about the US. Chipping guest workers will be several steps too far for me. The way things are going in a couple of years I may have to consider moving to China...
Didn't he already get a year older 12 months ago?
Shocking new statistics reveal that approximately a third of Internet traffic is generated by technologies that are popular amongst Internet users worldwide. ...
WTF?
Is this culture limited to a niche audience? E.g. the Slashdot crowd? Taking a look at the real world for a moment we have millions of people embracing DRM because it comes in a nice shiny iPod package, the MPAA telling us that unless you have end-to-end HDCP you won't be watching the HD content you just bought in HD, TPM for the next generation of operating systems, the RIAA telling us that ripping a CD we bought to a PMP is not fair use while suing people who can't afford to defend themselves left, right, and center, companies whose core busines model is to buy IP then do nothing more than sue alleged infringers, and congressmen who push legislation for the studios and recording industries that deteriorate our rights in the digital world with seemingly no reckoning. Is this new movement kind of like Greenpeace then? It's cool, we support it, but really nothing much is going to change?
'cultural environmentalism' that tries to protect the public domain in the way that the environmental movement tries to protect the natural ecology
I'm sure it will be just as succesful. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going outside to enjoy the unnaturally hot weather we're having this year...
And how is the ISP supposed to be able to detect the difference between encrypted and non-encrypted binary data? By performing a MITM attack during the public key exchange when any connection is first established (the details of the exchange necessarily being part of the bittorrent protocol). The ISP is perfectly situated in terms of routing to do this and because keys must be exchanged early on in the session there is probably not too much overhead associated with doing so on a large scale (i.e. for many customers and many connections per customer). I could see it becomming a feature on high-end network hardware. Maybe wiretap laws might prevent it, or the DMCA, but IANAL so I don't know for sure.
Demonstration available here: http://labs.divx.com/archives/000072.html
Does anyone actually *want* the source code of a root kit to be published online? Then not only will you have viruses masking themselves using XCP, but viruses with this ability built-in. You know how it works..
Actually the most likely reason this is done in the X-Fi is because the whole idea is that you're likely to be performing a ton of DSP on it. EQ, crystalizer, dynamic adjust, spatialization, and so forth. Now, the crystalizer in itself could easily add frequncy harmonics far above the original sample rate (or half sample rate, before someone shoots me down on that :P), and you probably want all of those other lovely DSP ops to be carried out on a very high resolution representation of the signal rather than at the original resolution, or you're going to introduce a lot more error.
Sometimes, Slashdot is full of useful information. Othertimes, it is full of people who would like to think they are experts talking complete and utter bullshit.
You can, very easily, make audio sound better than a CD, or an MP3, or even *gasp* the original recording!
Key words: "sound better", *not* "become a more accurate digitized representation of the original waveform".
You can improve the dynamic compression, compensating for typical processes such as employed by MP3 encoders and preperation for transfer to audio CD (obviously the typical MP3 has a compound effect of these). For MP3s you can make a massive difference in terms of fidelity simply by performing some frequency harmonic reconstruction (check out the DFX plug-in for WinAMP). You can even add *gasp* harmonics above the original sample rate! Perhaps providing a wider stereo seperation for lower frequencies might help (as some lossly audio encoders do the opposite here). Perhaps noise attenuation algorithms will help older or poorly mastered material.
Even the equiptment used to record a master will have certain properties and characteristics that can be compensated for by a DSP during playback. Sometimes it's even just nice that cards like the X-Fi have such powerful DSPs capable of using such high resolutions to compensate for the reproduction problems of your crappy home stereo system without completely distorting the sound.
Honestly, I don't claim to be an expert in the field of audio myself, but so many of the posts here are complete tosh I felt compelled to write for once.
I for one am looking forward to upgrading my Audigy 2 ZS!