I'm not aware of VOIP programs that let you call standard phones - long distance even - without charging you money or working together with a telco. That part is kind of necessary to reach grandma's old touch-tone.
Of course Live Messenger is totally free for PC-to-PC calling, with nice high-res full-screen video even, if you want.
So Google says, "The best way to handle the search box [...] would be to give users a choice when they first start up Internet Explorer 7."
We all know Firefox defaults to Google (a company that Mozilla has a financial arrangement with), and it doesn't give users a choice when they first start up the browser.
In fact, Firefox goes one further, not only defaulting the search box to Google, but defaulting your start page to a Google search page (with Firefox branding), again without asking the user.
Microsoft makes it easy to switch search providers. They adhere to the OpenSearch standard for search links. They support search discovery.
Oh, and the search box in IE7 gets set to the AutoSearch setting from IE6, so if a user or admin has changed that to Google, you'll start up IE7 and the search box will be Google.
How many times is this going to be misreported?
This is Sony Pictures saying that they won't use the Image Constraint token. It is not Sony Consumer Electronics saying that the ICT won't exist in Blu-Ray. Other movie studios are welcome to use the ICT on Blu-ray, or even use it or not on disc-by-disc basis. Fox has made a similar announcement about HD-DVD: they won't use the ICT on their HD-DVD movies.
Again: blu-ray still has the Image Constraint Token, and every movie studio is welcome to enable it or not on any disc they choose.
This is patently untrue, and is just one of many examples where people completely misunderstand MS's support of HDCP and a secure digital path to the monitor.
There is NOTHING in Vista that requires this. NONE. ZIP. The secure digital display output is there to enable that REQUIREMENT of HD-DVD and blu-ray. If you have a problem with it, complain to both the HD-DVD and blu-ray consortiums, it's their fault. And it'll need to be in consumer set-top players as well as any other OS on any computer that wants to comply with those standards.
Don't want to play HD-DVD or blu-ray? Fine, then you don't need a new video card or monitor.
1. USB drives are significantly faster than hard drives for this type of data transfer (lots of small reads/writes that are spread all over). A fast hard drive might stream a big file faster, but loading up lots of little bits of data from all over the place is dog-slow compared to a decent flash drive.
2. USB speed isn't so fast in XP, but that's another thing about Vista - the USB stack is rewritten, and a lot faster.
3. They use a write-through caching method, so it hits the USB key first but background writes through to the hard drive. Pull the USB key and nothing is lost at all, it just reverts to the slower hard drive.
Well the article, for not being a rumor, sure does seem to lack anyone going on the record about anything. "We heard it from this guy, and we saw it on this game blog..."
But it also makes a lot of logical leaps.
If what is stated in the article is true, it could be that Microsoft has more units to ship to retailers than it intends to, in order to make a deliberate shortage. I think that's bad business and probably not something MS would do (there will be plenty of buzz and the system will sell out even if they ship more), but that's not the point.
Could MS also be "limiting supply sent to retailers" because it doesn't have that many to ship? Yes.
Could MS be working with retailers to "ensure they sell out" because they don't want to allocate units to a store where they WON'T sell out, while other stores have a long waiting list? Yes.
Could Microsoft be trying to capitalize on a bad situation (selling fewer than there is demand for) by promoting the sold-out status as a good thing; a sign of the console's gotta-have-it status? Yes.
Could Microsoft also be trying to ensure that the launch day goes "smoothly" and no riots or disturbances form by making sure retailers are prepared to put "sold out" signs up and keep their customers informed before they all wait in line for two hours only to not get a console? Yes.
I'm not saying all those things are true. But the specific things noted in the article have other explanations than simply "Microsoft is creating an intenttional shortage."
Making a big shortage is a bad idea, and MS knows it. It is in their best interest to get as many units in the hands of gamers as fast as possible - to have the biggest launch day it can, followed by a steady stream of shipments until the PS3's launch, whenever that is. Generating "buzz" by shorting out supply only works when you have no real competition, and the Xbox 360 has plenty.
There's been some confusion about this.
Both ATI and nVidia have announced H.264 acceleration support, but neither one has shipped a driver that enables it. nVidia targets the fourth quarter for a driver that enables that feature. ATI hasn't said "when" but the time frame seems to be roughly the same.
Right now, no shipping video card & driver accelerates H.264 decoding.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm not aware of VOIP programs that let you call standard phones - long distance even - without charging you money or working together with a telco. That part is kind of necessary to reach grandma's old touch-tone.
Of course Live Messenger is totally free for PC-to-PC calling, with nice high-res full-screen video even, if you want.
So Google says, "The best way to handle the search box [...] would be to give users a choice when they first start up Internet Explorer 7." We all know Firefox defaults to Google (a company that Mozilla has a financial arrangement with), and it doesn't give users a choice when they first start up the browser. In fact, Firefox goes one further, not only defaulting the search box to Google, but defaulting your start page to a Google search page (with Firefox branding), again without asking the user. Microsoft makes it easy to switch search providers. They adhere to the OpenSearch standard for search links. They support search discovery. Oh, and the search box in IE7 gets set to the AutoSearch setting from IE6, so if a user or admin has changed that to Google, you'll start up IE7 and the search box will be Google.
How many times is this going to be misreported? This is Sony Pictures saying that they won't use the Image Constraint token. It is not Sony Consumer Electronics saying that the ICT won't exist in Blu-Ray. Other movie studios are welcome to use the ICT on Blu-ray, or even use it or not on disc-by-disc basis. Fox has made a similar announcement about HD-DVD: they won't use the ICT on their HD-DVD movies. Again: blu-ray still has the Image Constraint Token, and every movie studio is welcome to enable it or not on any disc they choose.
This is patently untrue, and is just one of many examples where people completely misunderstand MS's support of HDCP and a secure digital path to the monitor. There is NOTHING in Vista that requires this. NONE. ZIP. The secure digital display output is there to enable that REQUIREMENT of HD-DVD and blu-ray. If you have a problem with it, complain to both the HD-DVD and blu-ray consortiums, it's their fault. And it'll need to be in consumer set-top players as well as any other OS on any computer that wants to comply with those standards. Don't want to play HD-DVD or blu-ray? Fine, then you don't need a new video card or monitor.
1. USB drives are significantly faster than hard drives for this type of data transfer (lots of small reads/writes that are spread all over). A fast hard drive might stream a big file faster, but loading up lots of little bits of data from all over the place is dog-slow compared to a decent flash drive. 2. USB speed isn't so fast in XP, but that's another thing about Vista - the USB stack is rewritten, and a lot faster. 3. They use a write-through caching method, so it hits the USB key first but background writes through to the hard drive. Pull the USB key and nothing is lost at all, it just reverts to the slower hard drive.
Well the article, for not being a rumor, sure does seem to lack anyone going on the record about anything. "We heard it from this guy, and we saw it on this game blog..." But it also makes a lot of logical leaps. If what is stated in the article is true, it could be that Microsoft has more units to ship to retailers than it intends to, in order to make a deliberate shortage. I think that's bad business and probably not something MS would do (there will be plenty of buzz and the system will sell out even if they ship more), but that's not the point. Could MS also be "limiting supply sent to retailers" because it doesn't have that many to ship? Yes. Could MS be working with retailers to "ensure they sell out" because they don't want to allocate units to a store where they WON'T sell out, while other stores have a long waiting list? Yes. Could Microsoft be trying to capitalize on a bad situation (selling fewer than there is demand for) by promoting the sold-out status as a good thing; a sign of the console's gotta-have-it status? Yes. Could Microsoft also be trying to ensure that the launch day goes "smoothly" and no riots or disturbances form by making sure retailers are prepared to put "sold out" signs up and keep their customers informed before they all wait in line for two hours only to not get a console? Yes. I'm not saying all those things are true. But the specific things noted in the article have other explanations than simply "Microsoft is creating an intenttional shortage." Making a big shortage is a bad idea, and MS knows it. It is in their best interest to get as many units in the hands of gamers as fast as possible - to have the biggest launch day it can, followed by a steady stream of shipments until the PS3's launch, whenever that is. Generating "buzz" by shorting out supply only works when you have no real competition, and the Xbox 360 has plenty.
There's been some confusion about this. Both ATI and nVidia have announced H.264 acceleration support, but neither one has shipped a driver that enables it. nVidia targets the fourth quarter for a driver that enables that feature. ATI hasn't said "when" but the time frame seems to be roughly the same. Right now, no shipping video card & driver accelerates H.264 decoding.
ExtremeTech has an excellent story as well. They call it the best desktop processor ever.