I've watched a fair amount of YouTube content via my TV (both with the Wii's internet browser and the Xbox's XBMC) and it really is nothing more than a gimmick. In its current state (low resolution and bitrate, 10 minute length restriction), YouTube is only really suited for PC use, ie "check out this video" links being passed via forums and IMs.
No one is seriously going to sit down in front of their TV and "watch YouTube", and it's hardly going to convince owners to buy a $250 device. Apple's store, on the other hand, if they actually managed to secure content from studios other than Disney, is another story.
Absolutely zero. It obviously didn't remove the entire SetAbortProc function from the Windows API -- it removed the SetAbortProc function from gdi.dll graphics rendering engine.
Microsoft's official fix was obviously not the same -- but it achieves the same purpose -- you can't call SetAbortProc at all from a WMF. Applications can.
My point wasn't that "Joe Blow came up with the fix in mere hours, they should have taken even less time." It was that even with the appropriate testing time, MS should be able to release a fix in days. Not weeks.
You definitely have a valid point, but you still can't defend Microsoft's slow response to the WMF issue.
Within hours, a member of the SomethingAwful forums had hacked together a patch to the gdi32.dll with a few dozen NOP instructions to render the SetAbortProc call useless. Obviously with just a hex editor and no access to the Windows source code.
So it's Microsofts fault in that they "have to grapple with a number of different companies" and not the fact that Napster choose to sell music in a format that the iPod doesn't play? When you're cutting out 90% of the hard drive MP3 player market and god knows what out of the Flash market (from memory, at least half) _and_ you have to contend with all the other WMA-selling stores don't expect sales to be great.
Especially when your corporate DRM-laden retooling of Napster into just another shitty brand leaves a bad taste in many peoples mouths.
The iTunes store isn't why people buy the iPod. (You could possibly argue otherwise with the video content, but I don't think so.) The AAC format isn't why people buy the iPod. Nothing on Microsoft's part is going to sell more WMA-capable iRivers and Creatives and the like.
From the article:
"Proof that a little bit of code can go a long way, Torrent packs an outstanding array of features in 107KB, and doesn't even create a folder in your Program Files. Azureus, to be fair, takes up only 151KB; BitTorrent is 184KB; and BitPump is 113KB--none of these clients is particularly bloated."
Wow, I didn't know that PC Magazine were so incompetent.
Azureus.exe is indeed 151KB, but as they mention, Azureus is written in Java. All Azureus.exe does is launch Azureus.jar, which in its current state is over 6MB in size. Nor did they check memory usage, which on Azureus is roughly 10x that of uTorrent, at least. It's not uncommon to see Azureus sucking 50MB when you're not doing much, and after a few days that can reach 100MB or more.
If they really thought that Azureus was only 151KB in size, the mind boggles what they thought was included in the 8MB download package. And they don't even mention having to download and install the 16MB JRE on top of that.
Sorry, "secret" was a bad choice of words when talking about encryption. "Not out in the open and easily readible" perhaps.
I suspect that the integrity of gamesaves will be verified possibly with a key in the Xbox360 CPU rather than plaintext in the executable.
To reiterate what others have said, the executables are still signed AND demo discs with no media checks have been around for months. So that rules out modifying the executables.
As far as gamesave exploits and the like...On the original Xbox, gamesaves were signed, but they used a key stored in plaintext in the executable. Meaning if you found a way to crash the game and run your code, it was trivial to get the game to accept it. I suspect on the Xbox 360 the key will be secret.
Secondly, games on the Xbox run in kernel mode. I suspect this is NOT be the case on the Xbox 360.
The Xbox 360 does not use an off-the-shelf CPU. Microsoft licensed it and built its own. The original Xbox was first hacked because it used an off-the-shelf Mobile Celeron and thus its secret information had to be built into the Xbox-specific southbridge and travel down the HyperTransport, which could be sniffed. Since the Xbox 360 used an MS-made CPU, I would wager that the key is on the CPU itself.
If we presume that gamesaves are signed with a secret key in the CPU, and applications do not run in kernel mode, we can rule out gamesave exploits in addition to executable modifications.
In short, this "news" is pointless. MS ship an executable with a few different bits allowing DVD-R playback and people suddenly think that we have a new Dreamcast on our hands. The disc will undoubtedly be subject to much scrutiny, but we're not really any closer to hacking the Xbox 360.
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I've watched a fair amount of YouTube content via my TV (both with the Wii's internet browser and the Xbox's XBMC) and it really is nothing more than a gimmick. In its current state (low resolution and bitrate, 10 minute length restriction), YouTube is only really suited for PC use, ie "check out this video" links being passed via forums and IMs.
No one is seriously going to sit down in front of their TV and "watch YouTube", and it's hardly going to convince owners to buy a $250 device. Apple's store, on the other hand, if they actually managed to secure content from studios other than Disney, is another story.
The neural port of ScummVM would be a better choice.
This is 2006, not 2001. You're supposed to be making "PS3 is huge/expensive/crap" or "Wii = Piss" jokes.
Yes, Ted, that was the joke.
Creative's ridiculous UI patent existing in NeXTStep has been well established, but here's a shot of it in an early MacOS beta from 1999.
Absolutely zero. It obviously didn't remove the entire SetAbortProc function from the Windows API -- it removed the SetAbortProc function from gdi.dll graphics rendering engine.
Microsoft's official fix was obviously not the same -- but it achieves the same purpose -- you can't call SetAbortProc at all from a WMF. Applications can.
My point wasn't that "Joe Blow came up with the fix in mere hours, they should have taken even less time." It was that even with the appropriate testing time, MS should be able to release a fix in days. Not weeks.
You definitely have a valid point, but you still can't defend Microsoft's slow response to the WMF issue.
Within hours, a member of the SomethingAwful forums had hacked together a patch to the gdi32.dll with a few dozen NOP instructions to render the SetAbortProc call useless. Obviously with just a hex editor and no access to the Windows source code.
And how long did Microsoft take?
So it's Microsofts fault in that they "have to grapple with a number of different companies" and not the fact that Napster choose to sell music in a format that the iPod doesn't play? When you're cutting out 90% of the hard drive MP3 player market and god knows what out of the Flash market (from memory, at least half) _and_ you have to contend with all the other WMA-selling stores don't expect sales to be great. Especially when your corporate DRM-laden retooling of Napster into just another shitty brand leaves a bad taste in many peoples mouths. The iTunes store isn't why people buy the iPod. (You could possibly argue otherwise with the video content, but I don't think so.) The AAC format isn't why people buy the iPod. Nothing on Microsoft's part is going to sell more WMA-capable iRivers and Creatives and the like.
"There's a driver glitch with brand new hardware!!! "
... meaning they still haven't resolved it 7 months later.
Actually it affects Pentium Ms as well, according to Anandtech.
"It's already been two weeks and they haven't fixed it yet!!"
Microsoft first identified the issue and published a Knowledgebase article July 12, 2005. That's a little more than 2 weeks.
In fact, the regedit quickfix they're recommending was also published on that date
From the article: "Proof that a little bit of code can go a long way, Torrent packs an outstanding array of features in 107KB, and doesn't even create a folder in your Program Files. Azureus, to be fair, takes up only 151KB; BitTorrent is 184KB; and BitPump is 113KB--none of these clients is particularly bloated." Wow, I didn't know that PC Magazine were so incompetent. Azureus.exe is indeed 151KB, but as they mention, Azureus is written in Java. All Azureus.exe does is launch Azureus.jar, which in its current state is over 6MB in size. Nor did they check memory usage, which on Azureus is roughly 10x that of uTorrent, at least. It's not uncommon to see Azureus sucking 50MB when you're not doing much, and after a few days that can reach 100MB or more. If they really thought that Azureus was only 151KB in size, the mind boggles what they thought was included in the 8MB download package. And they don't even mention having to download and install the 16MB JRE on top of that.
Sorry, "secret" was a bad choice of words when talking about encryption. "Not out in the open and easily readible" perhaps. I suspect that the integrity of gamesaves will be verified possibly with a key in the Xbox360 CPU rather than plaintext in the executable.
To reiterate what others have said, the executables are still signed AND demo discs with no media checks have been around for months. So that rules out modifying the executables.
As far as gamesave exploits and the like...On the original Xbox, gamesaves were signed, but they used a key stored in plaintext in the executable. Meaning if you found a way to crash the game and run your code, it was trivial to get the game to accept it. I suspect on the Xbox 360 the key will be secret.
Secondly, games on the Xbox run in kernel mode. I suspect this is NOT be the case on the Xbox 360.
The Xbox 360 does not use an off-the-shelf CPU. Microsoft licensed it and built its own. The original Xbox was first hacked because it used an off-the-shelf Mobile Celeron and thus its secret information had to be built into the Xbox-specific southbridge and travel down the HyperTransport, which could be sniffed. Since the Xbox 360 used an MS-made CPU, I would wager that the key is on the CPU itself.
If we presume that gamesaves are signed with a secret key in the CPU, and applications do not run in kernel mode, we can rule out gamesave exploits in addition to executable modifications.
In short, this "news" is pointless. MS ship an executable with a few different bits allowing DVD-R playback and people suddenly think that we have a new Dreamcast on our hands. The disc will undoubtedly be subject to much scrutiny, but we're not really any closer to hacking the Xbox 360.