Before you think "Jesus Christ! £550 for a PS3!!!", bear in mind that this is a bundle of the high spec PS3 (with 60GB HDD) and 3 games, AND free shipping.
If you work that back, based on £40 a game, the console cost is £430... which is right on the money for the £425 previously reported. The real newsworthy part of this story is the fact they're taking pre-orders so soon. Do I smell a publicity stunt on the part of play.com?
Note: I still think that the supposed price (£425) is ridiculously expensive, and I'm not trying to argue that this is in any way "cheap".
Anyone else notice that the submitter is called 'cryptoz', or that his linked website, http://www.sheehy.ca/crypto/, is called "The Cryptography Center"?
Also the little matter of his website's description saying "This website is designed as a location for as many cryptography resources as possible. The intent is to collect a large number of articles for those who are interested in learning more, practical computer applications to download, lists of other resources, and an open forum for discussion on cryptographic techniques. As well, I hope this website will be a new home for those interested in the science of keeping secrets."
Am I the only one who thinks that this is someone looking to pick the brains of millions of nerds in order to populate their website? You really need to encrypt "30GiB"? Yeah, my arse you do matey.
I'm not sure you've quite grasped this whole Coral Cache thing. Coral is simply a system of mirroring the contents of a website in order to save bandwidth and increase performance. Tom is getting plenty of $$$ as it is from Google Adsense, but he certainly isn't putting it into more robust servers and bigger bandwidth... his site is sloooooooow.
Tough shit if the majority come through Coral thanks to slashdot, but it serves him doubly right if he really did pay for his feature (Slashdot wouldn't stoop so low, would they??;)).
I'm a subscriber, and I sent an email to the 'duty editor' to change the link to Coral about 10 minutes before the article went live. And the reason I subscribed is so that I could beat the slashdottings!
At least they changed the link so it points direct to Tom's. The original redirected through pheedo.com (whatever that is).
I've always found it a total pain to remember passwords for different resources, so I came up (probably stole the idea from someone, too long ago) with a method of using the keyboard as a sort of encoder/decoder. What I do is I have a memorable word or phrase, but I always type in the letters above or below the actual characters. This means I can turn a memorable phrase, say, "slashdot.org", into gibberish, like "woqwye95l94t". (No, that isn't my Slashdot login, so don't even think about it:).)
I've found that, while you need to think about it at the start, it doesn't take too long before you're used to using it. Of course you can (as I have) obfuscate it even more. For example, you could change the case (upper/lower) on alternate letters, type your memorable word/phrase in backwards, alternate above and below keys, etc.
Just an idea, real good for the corporate logins... you can easily remember a word or name, and quickly turn it into something the IT Dept. would approve of.
You linked to it yourself, so you should be aware of the strengths of the application. It does on-the-fly disk encryption with either whole partitions or disk image files, has absolutely no problem with massive disks (I have a 40GB image on a USB drive), and is pretty fast. My benchmarks come up with 50MB/s average throughput (around 56MB/s encrypting, 47MB/s decrypting) for 256bit AES encryption on my machine. TrueCrypt seems to cope well with files of any size, and while I can't say I've tried 30GB, 4.7GB DVD images work very well indeed.
One thing that really makes it stand out in your scenario is the ability to use keyfiles. This allows you to select one or more files that will be used (hashed?) with your password to secure your data against those hardware keyloggers. (Although, I would question whether encryption is really required if you aren't that bothered about security.)
The best part of TrueCrypt is that it is completely open-source. No closed/proprietary systems and no snake oil. For encryption on Windows, when the built in stuff doesn't cut it, TrueCrypt is the only way to go, IMHO.
That is a total myth; there are actually quite a few decent games available on the Mac. Look at the current selection in the Apple Store and see for yourself.
Firstly, all of the funny legal notices are linked to from the main TPB page under 'Legal threats', they are most certainly still there.
Secondly, redirecting from http://www.foo.com/ to just http://foo.com/ is quite common and normal. The domain is owned by the same person/group, as www is just a subdomain, and the redirect just serves to remind users that www is deprecated.
There's a lot more to it at http://no-www.org/ and rest assured that The Pirate Bay is still being operated by the same folk.
What I pointed out was that Microsoft has so far never actually shipped a product with PDF support, but that Office 2007 (which is in public Beta-2 BTW) supports PDF writing. Simple.
I see how the old MDI Office Imaging thing was never used, but I think it could be different this time round.
For one, XPS behaves like PDF, while MDI doesn't. Second, MDI was a little known tool included with Office; XPS is going to be included with Vista. When the most widely used OS has native support for XPS viewing and creation, many more people will use it, for convenience. I wouldn't be too surprised if Microsoft sneak in an XPS viewer via Windows Update for XP users too, they did it with Journal Viewer after all.
XPS will not become the de facto standard overnight, but it'll definitely make inroads for web use and printing. Web site publishers can distribute XPS files without having to put in links and instructions for downloading Acrobat Reader, for example. Professional printing companies will pretty much have to support XPS thanks to Office and MS Publisher too.
Correction: Microsoft has never shipped PDF support with any of its applications.
If you'd RTFA, you'd know that Microsoft is including PDF writing with Office 2007. Support for exporting to PDF has been available since the first technical betas.
Well, I thought this was pretty odd too, until I remebered about one of the Vista 'features' that Microsoft were pushing a while back.
Microsoft are developing a competitor to PDF, codenamed 'Metro', that allows all the same functions as PDF as well as being integrated with the Vista printing system (much like Mac OS X's 'Print as PDF'). They also demonstrated it (I think at WinHEC 2005) printing direct to 'Metro-enabled' printers with a noticeable quality boost. They later renamed the format 'XPS' and it is present in the current Office 2007 builds.
I think this is typical style Microsoft FUD to make it look like Adobe wants them to drop PDF, when actually, it's MS that wants rid of PDF in order to promote its XPS format. Despite PDF's strong foothold, integration of XPS within the widest used operating system and widest used office suite could change things. I reckon this is MS saying "sorry, not our fault you have to use our format!".
That article you linked to... thanks for the laugh.
PS3 1% as powerful as the human brain?!, yeah, and my ass is rated at 4 teraflops.
That means, that a supercomputer rated at 200 teraflops (based on the PS3's claimed 2 Tflops) is equivalent to the human brain. So, when Blue Gene/L is complete, it'll be 1.8x as powerful as the human mind. Can you smell it yet?
At least one thing is for sure, Blue Gene/L (or the PS3) will never be able to run on cheetos and coffee.
Windows Hibernate does NOT require the swapfile to be the same size as system RAM. It does, however, require a section of disk space equal to the size of your RAM for 'hiberfil.sys', the space where it dumps the memory to. Static swap files are also not a concern... I have a static 1.5GB swap for my 2GB RAM and I hibernate just fine.
If Windows is not allowing you (or the GP, whoever) to switch hibernation on, then you either have a seriously fragmented disk, or not enough free space to contain the hibernation file.
For 9/10 users, this is not a problem, as hibernation is turned on when you first install Windows, not when you have a totally clogged box. If you need/want hibernation, free up some space; or get a second hard drive/backup, blow away your Windows install and rebuild from scratch. Before I get flamed for saying 'nuke and rebuild', if you are so clogged up that you can't hibernate then you're long overdue for one anyway.
There is no reason a thin client actually needs an OS, and that is even contrary to what a thin client is designed to do.
Well, this JackPC thin client is pretty much exactly the definition given in your Wikipedia link.
From Wikipedia: "The word "thin" refers to the small boot image which such clients typically require - perhaps no more than required to connect to a network and start up a dedicated web browser or "Remote Desktop" connection such as X11, Citrix ICA or Microsoft RDP."
From the Summary "The Jack PC runs Windows CE, is designed to connect to 'any terminal server-based environment' and has Citrix ICA and Microsoft RDP clients built in. It runs Internet Explorer 6.0 to connect to Web-driven applications".
In this case, the web browser is IE6 and the Remote Desktop Connection is Citrix and RDP, all provided by WinCE. These clients will store everything on a server, the only settings they'll have are the network config... they aren't storing anything else in that 64MB! Now, your point was?
According to interviews that showed up on Watch Impress, the PS3 will have homebrew.
I'd like to think that what you say is true, but with the current PSP homebrew situation, I'll believe it when I see it.
But you're kind of right. Comparing PS3 backwards compatability to the Xbox360's backwards compatability is like comparing stinking, rotten, moldy oranges to fresh, clean apples.
(Atleast the oranges can play Barbie Horse Adventure.)
I presume you didn't think this one out properly. Look at the order: PS3 backwards compatibility is being portrayed as "stinking, rotten, moldy oranges"; and the 360's backwards compatibility is portrayed as "fresh, clean apples". Freudian slip?
This argument is becoming fruitless. Clearly you would buy the PS3 regardless of how Sony treats you or your wallet. I, on the other hand, would not touch it with a bargepole. Let's agree to disagree.
Slashdot Mirror
Before you think "Jesus Christ! £550 for a PS3!!!", bear in mind that this is a bundle of the high spec PS3 (with 60GB HDD) and 3 games, AND free shipping.
If you work that back, based on £40 a game, the console cost is £430... which is right on the money for the £425 previously reported. The real newsworthy part of this story is the fact they're taking pre-orders so soon. Do I smell a publicity stunt on the part of play.com?
Note: I still think that the supposed price (£425) is ridiculously expensive, and I'm not trying to argue that this is in any way "cheap".
Even better, someone registers with dummy data and posts the login credentials to a major geek news site...
Login at: http://extranet.hifn.com/home
Login Email: hifnco@mailinator.com
Password: cryptodoc5
Enjoy responsibly!
Nice troll you got going there. Real nice.
Anyone else notice that the submitter is called 'cryptoz', or that his linked website, http://www.sheehy.ca/crypto/, is called "The Cryptography Center"?
Also the little matter of his website's description saying "This website is designed as a location for as many cryptography resources as possible. The intent is to collect a large number of articles for those who are interested in learning more, practical computer applications to download, lists of other resources, and an open forum for discussion on cryptographic techniques. As well, I hope this website will be a new home for those interested in the science of keeping secrets."
Am I the only one who thinks that this is someone looking to pick the brains of millions of nerds in order to populate their website? You really need to encrypt "30GiB"? Yeah, my arse you do matey.
I'm not sure you've quite grasped this whole Coral Cache thing. Coral is simply a system of mirroring the contents of a website in order to save bandwidth and increase performance. Tom is getting plenty of $$$ as it is from Google Adsense, but he certainly isn't putting it into more robust servers and bigger bandwidth... his site is sloooooooow.
;)).
Tough shit if the majority come through Coral thanks to slashdot, but it serves him doubly right if he really did pay for his feature (Slashdot wouldn't stoop so low, would they??
I'm a subscriber, and I sent an email to the 'duty editor' to change the link to Coral about 10 minutes before the article went live. And the reason I subscribed is so that I could beat the slashdottings!
At least they changed the link so it points direct to Tom's. The original redirected through pheedo.com (whatever that is).
By the time I got to page three, Toms Hardware was reeeaaallly slow.
Maybe try using a Coral Cache version so other folks get a chance to see the article.
Cheers!
I've always found it a total pain to remember passwords for different resources, so I came up (probably stole the idea from someone, too long ago) with a method of using the keyboard as a sort of encoder/decoder. What I do is I have a memorable word or phrase, but I always type in the letters above or below the actual characters. This means I can turn a memorable phrase, say, "slashdot.org", into gibberish, like "woqwye95l94t". (No, that isn't my Slashdot login, so don't even think about it :).)
I've found that, while you need to think about it at the start, it doesn't take too long before you're used to using it. Of course you can (as I have) obfuscate it even more. For example, you could change the case (upper/lower) on alternate letters, type your memorable word/phrase in backwards, alternate above and below keys, etc.
Just an idea, real good for the corporate logins... you can easily remember a word or name, and quickly turn it into something the IT Dept. would approve of.
I'd say your best bet'd be TrueCrypt.
You linked to it yourself, so you should be aware of the strengths of the application. It does on-the-fly disk encryption with either whole partitions or disk image files, has absolutely no problem with massive disks (I have a 40GB image on a USB drive), and is pretty fast. My benchmarks come up with 50MB/s average throughput (around 56MB/s encrypting, 47MB/s decrypting) for 256bit AES encryption on my machine. TrueCrypt seems to cope well with files of any size, and while I can't say I've tried 30GB, 4.7GB DVD images work very well indeed.
One thing that really makes it stand out in your scenario is the ability to use keyfiles. This allows you to select one or more files that will be used (hashed?) with your password to secure your data against those hardware keyloggers. (Although, I would question whether encryption is really required if you aren't that bothered about security.)
The best part of TrueCrypt is that it is completely open-source. No closed/proprietary systems and no snake oil. For encryption on Windows, when the built in stuff doesn't cut it, TrueCrypt is the only way to go, IMHO.
Maybe using Virtual PC on Intel Macs? It'll run under Rosetta, I'm sure; and Universal builds can't be far away.
That is a total myth; there are actually quite a few decent games available on the Mac. Look at the current selection in the Apple Store and see for yourself.
I pointed this out in an email to the 'duty editor' before the story went live, but they obviously didn't listen. Tagged 'badtitle'.
Good thing they don't get paid for editing Slashdot. Oh, wait...
Firstly, all of the funny legal notices are linked to from the main TPB page under 'Legal threats', they are most certainly still there.
Secondly, redirecting from http://www.foo.com/ to just http://foo.com/ is quite common and normal. The domain is owned by the same person/group, as www is just a subdomain, and the redirect just serves to remind users that www is deprecated.
There's a lot more to it at http://no-www.org/ and rest assured that The Pirate Bay is still being operated by the same folk.
Why would you even consider buying the 360 if backwards compatibility is so important? You mention a PS2, so why do you even care? (I'm curious)
Beta has never been shipped product.
What I pointed out was that Microsoft has so far never actually shipped a product with PDF support, but that Office 2007 (which is in public Beta-2 BTW) supports PDF writing. Simple.
I see how the old MDI Office Imaging thing was never used, but I think it could be different this time round.
For one, XPS behaves like PDF, while MDI doesn't. Second, MDI was a little known tool included with Office; XPS is going to be included with Vista. When the most widely used OS has native support for XPS viewing and creation, many more people will use it, for convenience. I wouldn't be too surprised if Microsoft sneak in an XPS viewer via Windows Update for XP users too, they did it with Journal Viewer after all.
XPS will not become the de facto standard overnight, but it'll definitely make inroads for web use and printing. Web site publishers can distribute XPS files without having to put in links and instructions for downloading Acrobat Reader, for example. Professional printing companies will pretty much have to support XPS thanks to Office and MS Publisher too.
Correction: Microsoft has never shipped PDF support with any of its applications.
If you'd RTFA, you'd know that Microsoft is including PDF writing with Office 2007. Support for exporting to PDF has been available since the first technical betas.
Metro has been a component of Office 12 since the first technical beta release. If you are a tester/user of Office 2007, you'll find Metro here:
[OfficeLogoMenu] > 'Save As...(arrow next to it)' > 'PDF or XPS'. Guess what? XPS is Metro.
Whoever modded you informative needs a +1 cluebat to the head.
Well, I thought this was pretty odd too, until I remebered about one of the Vista 'features' that Microsoft were pushing a while back.
Microsoft are developing a competitor to PDF, codenamed 'Metro', that allows all the same functions as PDF as well as being integrated with the Vista printing system (much like Mac OS X's 'Print as PDF'). They also demonstrated it (I think at WinHEC 2005) printing direct to 'Metro-enabled' printers with a noticeable quality boost. They later renamed the format 'XPS' and it is present in the current Office 2007 builds.
I think this is typical style Microsoft FUD to make it look like Adobe wants them to drop PDF, when actually, it's MS that wants rid of PDF in order to promote its XPS format. Despite PDF's strong foothold, integration of XPS within the widest used operating system and widest used office suite could change things. I reckon this is MS saying "sorry, not our fault you have to use our format!".
That article you linked to... thanks for the laugh.
PS3 1% as powerful as the human brain?!, yeah, and my ass is rated at 4 teraflops.
That means, that a supercomputer rated at 200 teraflops (based on the PS3's claimed 2 Tflops) is equivalent to the human brain. So, when Blue Gene/L is complete, it'll be 1.8x as powerful as the human mind. Can you smell it yet?
At least one thing is for sure, Blue Gene/L (or the PS3) will never be able to run on cheetos and coffee.
Windows Hibernate does NOT require the swapfile to be the same size as system RAM. It does, however, require a section of disk space equal to the size of your RAM for 'hiberfil.sys', the space where it dumps the memory to. Static swap files are also not a concern... I have a static 1.5GB swap for my 2GB RAM and I hibernate just fine.
If Windows is not allowing you (or the GP, whoever) to switch hibernation on, then you either have a seriously fragmented disk, or not enough free space to contain the hibernation file.
For 9/10 users, this is not a problem, as hibernation is turned on when you first install Windows, not when you have a totally clogged box. If you need/want hibernation, free up some space; or get a second hard drive/backup, blow away your Windows install and rebuild from scratch. Before I get flamed for saying 'nuke and rebuild', if you are so clogged up that you can't hibernate then you're long overdue for one anyway.
Well, this JackPC thin client is pretty much exactly the definition given in your Wikipedia link.
From Wikipedia:
"The word "thin" refers to the small boot image which such clients typically require - perhaps no more than required to connect to a network and start up a dedicated web browser or "Remote Desktop" connection such as X11, Citrix ICA or Microsoft RDP."
From the Summary
"The Jack PC runs Windows CE, is designed to connect to 'any terminal server-based environment' and has Citrix ICA and Microsoft RDP clients built in. It runs Internet Explorer 6.0 to connect to Web-driven applications".
In this case, the web browser is IE6 and the Remote Desktop Connection is Citrix and RDP, all provided by WinCE. These clients will store everything on a server, the only settings they'll have are the network config... they aren't storing anything else in that 64MB! Now, your point was?
Actually, Coral CDN is now advocating the use of port 8080 instead of 8090. Both will still work for the time being.
There is more information in this posting to the [coral-announce] list.
There are actually quite a few decent games available on the Mac, you just need to look in the games section of the Apple Store instead of the Mac OS X download area.
I don't have mod points today, but consider this my +1, Funny.
You brightened up my day, cheers!
I'd like to think that what you say is true, but with the current PSP homebrew situation, I'll believe it when I see it.
I presume you didn't think this one out properly. Look at the order: PS3 backwards compatibility is being portrayed as "stinking, rotten, moldy oranges"; and the 360's backwards compatibility is portrayed as "fresh, clean apples". Freudian slip?
This argument is becoming fruitless. Clearly you would buy the PS3 regardless of how Sony treats you or your wallet. I, on the other hand, would not touch it with a bargepole. Let's agree to disagree.