your first mistake is to expect to find "news" about Microsoft. There is very little out there since most of it is classified as PR. You'll have to read through hundreds of articles/blogs/ads/court documents to find a scent of some interesting material containing facts pertaining to real product, features, etc.
That little bit about this particular being an opinion piece also should have given you a clue about the 'value' of this story.
New ring oscillators using a single nanotube is a just a technical innovation. Balmer / Gates / Microsoft talk about REAL innovation! Marketing innovations. Here are some examples of real Microsoft innovations: "Vista - People Ready", "Microsft - Plays For Sure", and let's not forget, "Microsoft - Get The Facts". THOSE are Microsoft innovations. IBM has nothing.;-)
what's gonna hurt more is that they're trying to ease the pain for the investors by saying they're increasing production of the xbox game console. The problem is that each sale of xbox is a rather large loss and they're going to have to find an innovative way of hiding that. Granted, the Windows CE division isn't losing $250 million per quarter anymore but without the boost in sales from MS Vista this year, where are they going to pull the numbers from? Can they cut R&D again and spread that out? They cut it pretty good last time. If sales slow in anticipation of new releases of MS Windows and MS Office, that's gonna hurt two thirds of their profit generators.
It'll be an interesting year for Microsoft. They'll be innovating up the ying-yang in the marketing department, that's for sure.
How many times do we need to hear from Microsoft PR people( anybody employed by MS ) about the next great OS being rewritten? Didn't the WMF exploit( GDI SetAbortProc code from Windows 3.x ) open ANY eyes to the bull these people shovel out to the public? Remember when Bill Gates said all new development was stopped for a month so they could review all the code for security issues. And they missed the WMF exploit code?
Maybe that's why they keep delaying OS releases... They've got to keep repeating the lies a few more times before it's believed by enough to make a successful launch of the OS. ie, Enough people must be willing to accept the "new" OS on a new computer and not ask for the legacy OS. IHMO
Any news from MS is old news and pretty worthless IMO. It's just PR one way or another.
hmmm, I think that we could go back about 30 years and determine that a typewriter/keyboard is a standard office tool. And that tool was also commonly used in higher education 20 years ago. Over the past 10+ years, the computer/keyboard is also a standard tool for many with their sights above working at the local car wash or Denny's.
I don't buy the bit about lawyers studying law and not secretarial duties. Watching ones fingers hit the right key isn't helping them put their ideas together one bit. It's not THAT hard to do and the computer is too commonly used as a tool for hunt-and-pecking. It's called progress and we should try it sometime. IMO.
She should be going after the education system she is part of. Why can't students in at THAT grade level, type without looking at the keyboard? There's something wrong here.....
I will also say that when I went to school, I don't know how many times I had a silent laugh with the instructor as all the students, except myself, were busy writing down everything the instructor was saying. Then, they'd get pissed when I would discuss with the instructor, concepts based on the material presented but not SPECIFICALLY that same material. Someone would always ask, "Is this going to be on the test?", and when the instructor would say "no", there would be the voice in the back, "then why are we talking about it?".
The system is broken and the teachers haven't a clue that it's broken. This instructor is addressing the symptom and not the problem... IMO.
Run Windows in a sandbox/VM if you REALLY need it and be done with it. That's where it belongs anyways and even Microsoft agrees( see Microsoft purchase of VM software in the press ). IMO.
I wonder how much backroom and personal phone call types of pressure Microsoft is putting on the players in this battle? If Sony was a bit less of a competitor in the market, it would probably take more pressure from MSFT but since Sony competes with many of those deciding which new DVD format to support, this is going to be a long and expensive battle. And, IMO, it's going to come down to the PS3. Microsoft may get the press all worked up about the xbox 180 but in the market for game consoles, Sony/PSx rules. And to tell you the truth, I'd be game to purchase a PS3 to pay HD DVDs if they are compelling enough.
hmmm, do they make HDMI switcher boxes? My HDTV only has one HDMI input and that's connected to MythTV/pcHDTV. Maybe some kind of pass-thru would do the trick. It's more likely the PS3 will have component HD output so that'll work too.
It'll be an interesting battle. I was REALLY surprised when HP and Dell went public last year with support for Blu-ray right after Microsoft released a public statement opposing it and backing HD-DVD. There's definately some backroom discussions going on over this stuff. But, we'll have to wait for the next DOJ vs MSFT court case to find out how much Microsoft dumps into this fight. IMO.
Exactly right. You might have noticed that with the new xbox180 they're attempting to get hardware vendors to OEM the software and take the losses instead of Microsoft. Hardware vendors are getting smarter these days though. Well, some of them. MSFT will find someone who thinks Bill G invents everything he talks about and will convice his BoD that a deal with Microsoft is a good deal.
Here's how it works. Now that Bill and Steve have put the stop to Palm's growth/threat by losing over $8 Billion to keep Windows CE going, they now can start inventing the handheld market. Just wait, we'll probably hear about a new R&D project inside of Microsoft call Global Positioning System.;-/
But this is Pen Windows 2006(tm) so it's a new invention by Bill Gates and everyone will want one. Microsoft invents everything. Didn't you know?;-/
Well, with billions in cash, Microsoft can pay the press to publish anything... And they do, they do. IMO, Microsoft is the McDonalds of the tech industry. Those who know better, go elsewhere. Those who don't, think it's the greatest. So where we have a McTablet, or better yet, a McTablet-mini. BFD. The only interest I would have in this is how fast will they show up on eBay for under $200 so I can put GNU/Linux on it and make the ultimate universal remote out of it.
There's too much "excitement" going on here considering what this really is. Dell won't ship GNU/Linux because the company gets too much of it's PROFITs directly from Microsoft. Over 20% from what I've heard and because of this, the only reason why Mr Dell would want one distro of GNU/Linux is so that the ONE company backing it could PAY them to pre-install it like Microsoft does. Well, I'm sure there is a profit for Microsoft in there so the marketing kickbacks don't equate to all of what Dell pays Microsoft for the OS. After all, Dell has to pay a consistent OEM price for Windows, or so says the DOJ vs MSFT settlement. Regardless, Dell gets massive amounts of cash thrown back at it from Microsoft for saying things like "we recommend Windows XP" on its ads, boxes, online store, etc. They are not going to give up 20% of their profits and IMO, GNU/Linux is a big worry for Dell since there is not one company they can leverage cash from like there is Microsoft( and Intel ). IMO.
So I wouldn't get too excited about this. There's really nothing in it.
I've heard this before from Mr Dell and IMO, it is a copout. Pleeeez, there are too many choices and I don't want to pick one and alienate the other.. blah blah blah. I'm sure THAT kind of indecision is exactly how Dell Computers Inc got where it is today. not!
Dell sucks up to Microsoft just like they sucked up to Intel. Because of this 'sucking up', Dell can sell their computers at closer to cost than others because they get close to 30% of their PROFITS from Microsoft and Intel marketing programs. note: The DOJ vs MSFT settlement only deals with the cost of the Microsoft Windows OS to OEMs, and says nothing about keeping marketing programs consistent.
And seeing how long it's taken Dell to bring out AMD based systems, Microsoft will have to be on the big slide down before Dell even remotely 'considers' GNU/Linux as an operating system for their computers. And even then, we'll hear for years how Dell is 'considering' GNU/Linux in the press before they actually do it( is this the beginning? ) That's because there'll be a period where THAT will get them a better price from Microsoft. IMO
this has been something Tivo hackers have had for quite some time with the webserver access hack. I guess now, Tivo finally feels this is something they should provide as part of the "Tivo Service".
Obviously, this isn't really news to techies and/or hackers but the general public is clueless as to what's available to them. Heck, I've told friends who great the Tivo DVR is but only til they get one with some new service, do they then tell me that they'd not want to be without a DVR... I guess that is why marketing is so expensive. The people have to be told over and over again before they finally "get it".:-/
exactly what I was thinking too. Not only did I see this report as a sign that OSS was gaining in ED, but also a sign that we should start seeing the schools with good CS departments start building their own software in the near future. And sharing it with the other schools too. There's no competition between schools with regard to who has the better online bookstore, online admission system, etc. Sharing these tools allows each location to spend more on actual education and phyical infrastructure.
OSS can also create something more than 'busy work' for the Junior/Senior/MBA/Doc students while providing them with potential jobs at the Universities later. If Carnegie Mellon built a kick butt online admission system on LAMP, others would/could/should use it and all of a sudden, CM students are experts in this and can become the support structure for the other schools.
In the same sense, I think our local, state, federal governments should be doing the same thing. How silly is it that one cities building permit system is not openly shared with other cities? Proprietary software does not allow this and each city must pay out the nose for custom applications which they'll be told has to be rewritten every 5 years or so...
25% already using OSS and more than another 50% considering it is a big win IMO. The tipping point is getting close.
Forget 0-60 MPH, I want to know how fast it goes 0-88 MPH!
Did these kids implement Doc Browns Flux Capacitor system? It looks like I see two of the three legs of the old/new Doc Brown design sticking out of the hood( yellow things )!;-)
At the ICS West security conference last year, there were dozens of vendors showing Linux based DVR security systems. Some were even just their capture card and an IDE dongle containing the entire Linux OS and their DVR application. Just put it in a system with an existing HD on the secondary IDE bus and you'll soon be running a Linux based DVR. Most were advertising "embedded OS" and higher reliability than PC( Windows ) based DVRs.
I had put together a list a couple of years ago and will post them here. you'll be better served by also google'ing for yourself and filtering out the Virus prone models.
Can't wait til the book(s) come out. Remember when Microsoft started those two "independent" groups and they started publishing books about how bad the DOJ vs MSFT case was for the US consumers?
I hope this also sends more signals to others who attempt to license, partner, negotiate, etc with Microsoft. They'll do anything to get their way. Anything. IMO.
that's all well and good but it has nothing to do with the requirements and target audience of the $100 laptop project. I think the key word would be 'school' and/or 'education'. The $100 laptops are supposed to be targeted at school kids.
So the guys using cell phones for buying/selling crops are not the target. The people using cell phones for online banking are not the target....
In fact, for negropointe's PC, I wonder if there is a way to hook these together in a network (ir?) and then have them use a cell phone as a hub to the outside world?
yes, that's been part of the plan from day one of its announcement. The crank powered laptops will have a standard network interface and have software for connecting them all on a mesh network. That same network which can share a network connection. So if one system in the mesh has a cell phone for Internet connectivity, all computers on the mesh can share/use that connection.
IMO, this is another stupid idea from Microsoft and either Bill has no clue as to what the design requirements are for this laptop or in typical Microsoft 'have hammer, find nails to hit with it' fashion, he's attempting to make this a Windows solution without any regard to the goals of the project.
The next thing you know, Microsoft will put backroom pressure on Nick/project and the Boston Globe will post an article about Nick/project...
try powering a monitor or TV with a crank! And how portable is that TV set going to be???? I can see it now, students carrying their TVs to school everyday because Bill Gates didn't want GNU/Linux to be successful in this project. But wait, there'll be a Microsoft branded dolly to cart the TV around and because the Microsoft PoorBoy Phone fits in your pocket, you can use both hands on the Microsoft Dolly...
Another example of "the road ahead" twisting, turning, and forking all over the place just to make sure those on "the road" keep heading towards Microsoft Windows and their software...
Gates takes from those with wealth, by hook or crook, and often times illegally( anti-competitive ) while Jobs, IMO, comes off as more of a guy making his money by building better products by competing.
So, the choice is between: 1) Gates, a crock if you will, who happens to donate some of his ill gotten wealth to schools, libraries, etc( almost always tied to Microsoft software which is well known for its high TCO and reliability isssues ) along with some health/medical gifts to the very very poor.
2) Jobs, a guy who's made his wealth the old fashion way, "he earned it" with an eye for what's easy to use, techically superior, and designed such that the products are desired by the market. And though he's made much less at what he's done, what he's done has actually helped make business and personal life easier.
Wow, tough choice.... My guess is that here in the US, where a TV character like "J.R. Ewing" is cheered on as a hero, Gates will get the nod over Jobs. The rest of the world knows Gates for putting out crappy software and charging bundles for it while forcing upgrades year after year, and will probably pick Jobs for providing the better products.
This question really shouldn't even be brought up IMO. There just is no similaries between the two. IMO.
agreed, I only hope we outsiders hear how things go. Knowing when to buy or sell the stock will hinge on "the Pixar island" remaining an island and keeping its residents happy and island bound...
LoB
Re:Ok, what happens to Renderman now?
on
Disney Buys Pixar
·
· Score: 0
Now come the crap movies...the "me too" movies.
They're already here.. Didn't you hear about "Antz", the knock-off of "A Bug's Life"?
Since it was brought up, for a while, it seemed that anything Disney( including then partner Pixar ) came out with resulted in those 3 dreamers( SKG/Dreamworks ) also releasing features based closely on the Disney features. Bug's Life/Antz, the Asteroid movies, and also Finding Nemo/A Sharks Tail are the first few which come to mind...
It's likely that with Dreamworks failure( it was just sold off ), it could be that we'll actually be seeing fewer "me too" movies for THIS reason, not this Disney/Pixar "merger".
OT: SKG's copies of Disney features rubbed me wrong, but I think it was seeing S. K. and G. in the front row wearing Microsoft BOB hats which first showed me they had no clue and that their hat sizes had grown too large...IMO
Geesh, the problem is not with loading the WMF file but with breaking it into records and "playing" the individual records in the WMF file... I thought was the former and saw tests around that size thinking all was good in WINE land. I was wrong.
With regards to WMF records, it appears WINE does have the same flaw Windows has in that it only checks to see if the record size is not zero before using the invalid size to create an illegal pointer and calling PlayMetaFileRecord...
So it looks like the Wine guys also brushed over WMF structure testing just like Microsoft coders did... Now I wonder what Steve Gibsons KnockKnock.exe tested and why it said WINE didn't have the flaw.
Wrong or not, it worked and it worked because Microsoft coders did not test for a valid WMF file. Mark even says so here:
Steve's example WMF file contains only one record, the one that specifies SetAbortProc, so under normal circumstances PlayMetaFile will never call his abort procedure. The record sizes that he found trigger its execution cause PlayMetaFile to incorrectly increment its pointer into the WMF file such that it believes that there are more records to process, whereas the values he used that don't trigger the execution land it on data values that indicate there are no more records. So his assertion that only certain magic values open the backdoor is wrong.
Maybe this isn't a big deal but it seems like it should be since Microsoft shot its mouth off saying Windows 2000 was the most secure Windows yet and they said they spent 3 months combing the source code for security flaws, blah, blah, blah. Now, not only do we find that there's a hole the size of Mt Fuji( WMF SetAbortProc vulnerability ) but even NEW versions of Windows( new code? ) are processing this ancient WMF spec and are not even checking for a valid file structure and the result is that it executes code when a particular value is used... geesh, "Trustworthy Computing"... Right.
Now the result is that fixing the original vulnerability also fixes the secondary flaw, but WTF was that second issue/flaw doing in there after all these years? Atleast the WINE guys got it right and tested the header structure before running along and processing to Microsofts WMF specifications.
Slashdot Mirror
your first mistake is to expect to find "news" about Microsoft. There is very little out there since most of it is classified as PR. You'll have to read through hundreds of articles/blogs/ads/court documents to find a scent of some interesting material containing facts pertaining to real product, features, etc.
That little bit about this particular being an opinion piece also should have given you a clue about the 'value' of this story.
LoB
New ring oscillators using a single nanotube is a just a technical innovation. Balmer / Gates / Microsoft talk about REAL innovation! Marketing innovations. Here are some examples of real Microsoft innovations: "Vista - People Ready", "Microsft - Plays For Sure", and let's not forget, "Microsoft - Get The Facts". THOSE are Microsoft innovations. IBM has nothing. ;-)
LoB
what's gonna hurt more is that they're trying to ease the pain for the investors by saying they're increasing production of the xbox game console. The problem is that each sale of xbox is a rather large loss and they're going to have to find an innovative way of hiding that. Granted, the Windows CE division isn't losing $250 million per quarter anymore but without the boost in sales from MS Vista this year, where are they going to pull the numbers from? Can they cut R&D again and spread that out? They cut it pretty good last time. If sales slow in anticipation of new releases of MS Windows and MS Office, that's gonna hurt two thirds of their profit generators.
It'll be an interesting year for Microsoft. They'll be innovating up the ying-yang in the marketing department, that's for sure.
LoB
How many times do we need to hear from Microsoft PR people( anybody employed by MS ) about the next great OS being rewritten? Didn't the WMF exploit( GDI SetAbortProc code from Windows 3.x ) open ANY eyes to the bull these people shovel out to the public? Remember when Bill Gates said all new development was stopped for a month so they could review all the code for security issues. And they missed the WMF exploit code?
Maybe that's why they keep delaying OS releases... They've got to keep repeating the lies a few more times before it's believed by enough to make a successful launch of the OS. ie, Enough people must be willing to accept the "new" OS on a new computer and not ask for the legacy OS. IHMO
Any news from MS is old news and pretty worthless IMO. It's just PR one way or another.
LoB
hmmm, I think that we could go back about 30 years and determine that a typewriter/keyboard is a standard office tool. And that tool was also commonly used in higher education 20 years ago. Over the past 10+ years, the computer/keyboard is also a standard tool for many with their sights above working at the local car wash or Denny's.
I don't buy the bit about lawyers studying law and not secretarial duties. Watching ones fingers hit the right key isn't helping them put their ideas together one bit. It's not THAT hard to do and the computer is too commonly used as a tool for hunt-and-pecking. It's called progress and we should try it sometime. IMO.
LoB
She should be going after the education system she is part of. Why can't students in at THAT grade level, type without looking at the keyboard? There's something wrong here.....
I will also say that when I went to school, I don't know how many times I had a silent laugh with the instructor as all the students, except myself, were busy writing down everything the instructor was saying. Then, they'd get pissed when I would discuss with the instructor, concepts based on the material presented but not SPECIFICALLY that same material. Someone would always ask, "Is this going to be on the test?", and when the instructor would say "no", there would be the voice in the back, "then why are we talking about it?".
The system is broken and the teachers haven't a clue that it's broken. This instructor is addressing the symptom and not the problem... IMO.
LoB
Run Windows in a sandbox/VM if you REALLY need it and be done with it. That's where it belongs anyways and even Microsoft agrees( see Microsoft purchase of VM software in the press ). IMO.
LoB
I wonder how much backroom and personal phone call types of pressure Microsoft is putting on the players in this battle? If Sony was a bit less of a competitor in the market, it would probably take more pressure from MSFT but since Sony competes with many of those deciding which new DVD format to support, this is going to be a long and expensive battle. And, IMO, it's going to come down to the PS3. Microsoft may get the press all worked up about the xbox 180 but in the market for game consoles, Sony/PSx rules. And to tell you the truth, I'd be game to purchase a PS3 to pay HD DVDs if they are compelling enough.
hmmm, do they make HDMI switcher boxes? My HDTV only has one HDMI input and that's connected to MythTV/pcHDTV. Maybe some kind of pass-thru would do the trick. It's more likely the PS3 will have component HD output so that'll work too.
It'll be an interesting battle. I was REALLY surprised when HP and Dell went public last year with support for Blu-ray right after Microsoft released a public statement opposing it and backing HD-DVD. There's definately some backroom discussions going on over this stuff. But, we'll have to wait for the next DOJ vs MSFT court case to find out how much Microsoft dumps into this fight. IMO.
LoB
Exactly right. You might have noticed that with the new xbox180 they're attempting to get hardware vendors to OEM the software and take the losses instead of Microsoft. Hardware vendors are getting smarter these days though. Well, some of them. MSFT will find someone who thinks Bill G invents everything he talks about and will convice his BoD that a deal with Microsoft is a good deal.
;-/
Here's how it works. Now that Bill and Steve have put the stop to Palm's growth/threat by losing over $8 Billion to keep Windows CE going, they now can start inventing the handheld market. Just wait, we'll probably hear about a new R&D project inside of Microsoft call Global Positioning System.
LoB
But this is Pen Windows 2006(tm) so it's a new invention by Bill Gates and everyone will want one. Microsoft invents everything. Didn't you know? ;-/
Well, with billions in cash, Microsoft can pay the press to publish anything... And they do, they do. IMO, Microsoft is the McDonalds of the tech industry. Those who know better, go elsewhere. Those who don't, think it's the greatest. So where we have a McTablet, or better yet, a McTablet-mini. BFD. The only interest I would have in this is how fast will they show up on eBay for under $200 so I can put GNU/Linux on it and make the ultimate universal remote out of it.
LoB
There's too much "excitement" going on here considering what this really is. Dell won't ship GNU/Linux because the company gets too much of it's PROFITs directly from Microsoft. Over 20% from what I've heard and because of this, the only reason why Mr Dell would want one distro of GNU/Linux is so that the ONE company backing it could PAY them to pre-install it like Microsoft does. Well, I'm sure there is a profit for Microsoft in there so the marketing kickbacks don't equate to all of what Dell pays Microsoft for the OS. After all, Dell has to pay a consistent OEM price for Windows, or so says the DOJ vs MSFT settlement. Regardless, Dell gets massive amounts of cash thrown back at it from Microsoft for saying things like "we recommend Windows XP" on its ads, boxes, online store, etc. They are not going to give up 20% of their profits and IMO, GNU/Linux is a big worry for Dell since there is not one company they can leverage cash from like there is Microsoft( and Intel ). IMO.
So I wouldn't get too excited about this. There's really nothing in it.
LoB
I've heard this before from Mr Dell and IMO, it is a copout. Pleeeez, there are too many choices and I don't want to pick one and alienate the other.. blah blah blah. I'm sure THAT kind of indecision is exactly how Dell Computers Inc got where it is today. not!
Dell sucks up to Microsoft just like they sucked up to Intel. Because of this 'sucking up', Dell can sell their computers at closer to cost than others because they get close to 30% of their PROFITS from Microsoft and Intel marketing programs. note: The DOJ vs MSFT settlement only deals with the cost of the Microsoft Windows OS to OEMs, and says nothing about keeping marketing programs consistent.
And seeing how long it's taken Dell to bring out AMD based systems, Microsoft will have to be on the big slide down before Dell even remotely 'considers' GNU/Linux as an operating system for their computers. And even then, we'll hear for years how Dell is 'considering' GNU/Linux in the press before they actually do it( is this the beginning? ) That's because there'll be a period where THAT will get them a better price from Microsoft. IMO
LoB
this has been something Tivo hackers have had for quite some time with the webserver access hack. I guess now, Tivo finally feels this is something they should provide as part of the "Tivo Service".
:-/
Obviously, this isn't really news to techies and/or hackers but the general public is clueless as to what's available to them. Heck, I've told friends who great the Tivo DVR is but only til they get one with some new service, do they then tell me that they'd not want to be without a DVR... I guess that is why marketing is so expensive. The people have to be told over and over again before they finally "get it".
LoB
exactly what I was thinking too. Not only did I see this report as a sign that OSS was gaining in ED, but also a sign that we should start seeing the schools with good CS departments start building their own software in the near future. And sharing it with the other schools too. There's no competition between schools with regard to who has the better online bookstore, online admission system, etc. Sharing these tools allows each location to spend more on actual education and phyical infrastructure.
OSS can also create something more than 'busy work' for the Junior/Senior/MBA/Doc students while providing them with potential jobs at the Universities later. If Carnegie Mellon built a kick butt online admission system on LAMP, others would/could/should use it and all of a sudden, CM students are experts in this and can become the support structure for the other schools.
In the same sense, I think our local, state, federal governments should be doing the same thing. How silly is it that one cities building permit system is not openly shared with other cities? Proprietary software does not allow this and each city must pay out the nose for custom applications which they'll be told has to be rewritten every 5 years or so...
25% already using OSS and more than another 50% considering it is a big win IMO. The tipping point is getting close.
LoB
Forget 0-60 MPH, I want to know how fast it goes 0-88 MPH!
;-)
Did these kids implement Doc Browns Flux Capacitor system? It looks like I see two of the three legs of the old/new Doc Brown design sticking out of the hood( yellow things )!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flux_capacitor
LoB
At the ICS West security conference last year, there were dozens of vendors showing Linux based DVR security systems. Some were even just their capture card and an IDE dongle containing the entire Linux OS and their DVR application. Just put it in a system with an existing HD on the secondary IDE bus and you'll soon be running a Linux based DVR. Most were advertising "embedded OS" and higher reliability than PC( Windows ) based DVRs.
m m #pricingr ity.htm
;-)
I had put together a list a couple of years ago and will post them here. you'll be better served by also google'ing for yourself and filtering out the Virus prone models.
http://www.spysource.net/digitalvideorecorders.ht
http://www.cctvsentry.com/Sentry_leseries_dvrs.ht
http://www.linuxmedialabs.com/
http://www.ituner.com/spectra.htm
http://www.sonerik.com/linux.asp
http://www.provideo.com.tw/DVR800.htm
http://www.at-fairfax.com/DVR/Info/Sentinel4.htm
http://www.avdeals.com/csispecosecure/digitalsecu
http://www.tech-island.com.tw/ep1.htm
ICS West is April 5-7th so I'd be putting in a request for a trip to Las Vegas if I were you.
LoB
Can't wait til the book(s) come out. Remember when Microsoft started those two "independent" groups and they started publishing books about how bad the DOJ vs MSFT case was for the US consumers?
I hope this also sends more signals to others who attempt to license, partner, negotiate, etc with Microsoft. They'll do anything to get their way. Anything. IMO.
LoB
that's all well and good but it has nothing to do with the requirements and target audience of the $100 laptop project. I think the key word would be 'school' and/or 'education'. The $100 laptops are supposed to be targeted at school kids.
...
So the guys using cell phones for buying/selling crops are not the target.
The people using cell phones for online banking are not the target.
LoB
yes, that's been part of the plan from day one of its announcement. The crank powered laptops will have a standard network interface and have software for connecting them all on a mesh network. That same network which can share a network connection. So if one system in the mesh has a cell phone for Internet connectivity, all computers on the mesh can share/use that connection.
IMO, this is another stupid idea from Microsoft and either Bill has no clue as to what the design requirements are for this laptop or in typical Microsoft 'have hammer, find nails to hit with it' fashion, he's attempting to make this a Windows solution without any regard to the goals of the project.
The next thing you know, Microsoft will put backroom pressure on Nick/project and the Boston Globe will post an article about Nick/project...
LoB
try powering a monitor or TV with a crank! And how portable is that TV set going to be???? I can see it now, students carrying their TVs to school everyday because Bill Gates didn't want GNU/Linux to be successful in this project. But wait, there'll be a Microsoft branded dolly to cart the TV around and because the Microsoft PoorBoy Phone fits in your pocket, you can use both hands on the Microsoft Dolly...
Another example of "the road ahead" twisting, turning, and forking all over the place just to make sure those on "the road" keep heading towards Microsoft Windows and their software...
Nice solution Bill. NOT! Nice solution Nick. IMO.
LoB
Gates takes from those with wealth, by hook or crook, and often times illegally( anti-competitive ) while Jobs, IMO, comes off as more of a guy making his money by building better products by competing.
So, the choice is between:
1) Gates, a crock if you will, who happens to donate some of his ill gotten wealth to schools, libraries, etc( almost always tied to Microsoft software which is well known for its high TCO and reliability isssues ) along with some health/medical gifts to the very very poor.
2) Jobs, a guy who's made his wealth the old fashion way, "he earned it" with an eye for what's easy to use, techically superior, and designed such that the products are desired by the market. And though he's made much less at what he's done, what he's done has actually helped make business and personal life easier.
Wow, tough choice.... My guess is that here in the US, where a TV character like "J.R. Ewing" is cheered on as a hero, Gates will get the nod over Jobs. The rest of the world knows Gates for putting out crappy software and charging bundles for it while forcing upgrades year after year, and will probably pick Jobs for providing the better products.
This question really shouldn't even be brought up IMO. There just is no similaries between the two. IMO.
LoB
agreed, I only hope we outsiders hear how things go. Knowing when to buy or sell the stock will hinge on "the Pixar island" remaining an island and keeping its residents happy and island bound...
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They're already here.. Didn't you hear about "Antz", the knock-off of "A Bug's Life"?
Since it was brought up, for a while, it seemed that anything Disney( including then partner Pixar ) came out with resulted in those 3 dreamers( SKG/Dreamworks ) also releasing features based closely on the Disney features. Bug's Life/Antz, the Asteroid movies, and also Finding Nemo/A Sharks Tail are the first few which come to mind...
It's likely that with Dreamworks failure( it was just sold off ), it could be that we'll actually be seeing fewer "me too" movies for THIS reason, not this Disney/Pixar "merger".
OT: SKG's copies of Disney features rubbed me wrong, but I think it was seeing S. K. and G. in the front row wearing Microsoft BOB hats which first showed me they had no clue and that their hat sizes had grown too large...IMO
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Geesh, the problem is not with loading the WMF file but with breaking it into records and "playing" the individual records in the WMF file... I thought was the former and saw tests around that size thinking all was good in WINE land. I was wrong.
With regards to WMF records, it appears WINE does have the same flaw Windows has in that it only checks to see if the record size is not zero before using the invalid size to create an illegal pointer and calling PlayMetaFileRecord...
So it looks like the Wine guys also brushed over WMF structure testing just like Microsoft coders did... Now I wonder what Steve Gibsons KnockKnock.exe tested and why it said WINE didn't have the flaw.
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Wrong or not, it worked and it worked because Microsoft coders did not test for a valid WMF file. Mark even says so here:
Steve's example WMF file contains only one record, the one that specifies SetAbortProc, so under normal circumstances PlayMetaFile will never call his abort procedure. The record sizes that he found trigger its execution cause PlayMetaFile to incorrectly increment its pointer into the WMF file such that it believes that there are more records to process, whereas the values he used that don't trigger the execution land it on data values that indicate there are no more records. So his assertion that only certain magic values open the backdoor is wrong.
Maybe this isn't a big deal but it seems like it should be since Microsoft shot its mouth off saying Windows 2000 was the most secure Windows yet and they said they spent 3 months combing the source code for security flaws, blah, blah, blah. Now, not only do we find that there's a hole the size of Mt Fuji( WMF SetAbortProc vulnerability ) but even NEW versions of Windows( new code? ) are processing this ancient WMF spec and are not even checking for a valid file structure and the result is that it executes code when a particular value is used... geesh, "Trustworthy Computing"... Right.
Now the result is that fixing the original vulnerability also fixes the secondary flaw, but WTF was that second issue/flaw doing in there after all these years? Atleast the WINE guys got it right and tested the header structure before running along and processing to Microsofts WMF specifications.
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