The number of security bugs in a piece of software only decreases when they are fixed.
That's assuming they really are fixed...
"Ed Yourdon reports that when programmers make changes to a program, they typically have a more than 50% chance of making an error the first time." -- Code Complete, Steve McConnell
Thanks - I'll give it a try, the SB is not as far away as possible, but it's not right next to the CPUs either.
Thing is, I didn't get it so much on Win2k - I use XP now. It comes and goes, but it's fairly consistent.
Tim
PS. I've tried all sorts of software hacks to get rid of it - processor affinity on the drivers, etc. - but the only one that really works is/ONECPU in boot.ini:-(
What I'd like is solid tested drivers, and a clear separation between the actual core driver, and all the other crap they shovel into the box (all that LiveWare nonsense).
Also, I'd like them to properly test the drivers too. I've got an SBLive on an SMP machine, and I get clicks and crackles all the time. (If I disable the 2nd CPU, it's fine). A friend has the same problem.
When games started taking a long time to make. Used to be even a revolutionary game could be made from start to finish in months. Wolfenstein 3-D took about 6 months to make. The original Doom took about a year.
Doom took a year? If I remember correctly, Doom was about a year late when it came out...am I wrong?
He wasn't talking about _used_ LPs or audiocassettes. His point was that the average consumer CANNOT tell the difference between a new (scratch/degradation free) LP/audiocassette and a CD.
You'd have to present some hard data to debate that.
Again, you wouldn't have to for most people. They're not going to buy an LP just because the first time you play it, it might sound better than a CD (but probably not on their eqpt). I know I've had LPs I've played about 8 times before they started to sound crap, as they got covered in dust etc.
Basically, CDs saved people like me from endlessly trying to clean LPs so they don't crackle and pop all the time.
Spoken like somebody who couldn't tell the difference between a live performance and a CD if you were blindfolded. Or a vinyl record and a CD.
Or possibly like an average consumer?
That's the point - I don't mind if audiophiles or whatever you want to call them will endlessly pursue the perfect sound, but they're in the minority. Quite a small minority.
And the only reason CDs won out is because they sound better after many listenings, not because they sound better.
Wrong, they won because they sound better. On the average Joe's equipment. I used to get very frustrated at the noise, clicks, pops, cracks, rumbles and rustles of LPs. Since switching to CD, I've almost never noticed such a problem. Also, as a vinyl loving friend of mine used to be fond of saying: "CDs are 15% convenience."
Sure if you buy a Linn Axis Nutter Bastard or whatever, you might be able to get LPs to sound better than CDs (although I'm in the cynics' camp here), but you won't get the average consumer to spend £500+ on a turntable. Aint gonna happen. Therefore CDs sound better, on the average consumer's equipment, to the average consumer. And surely that's one of the main goals of a mass market consumer format.
And, IIRC, that's why DVD Audio never splashed onto the scene, because when they did consumer listening tests, something like 9/10 people said "Huh? I can't tell the difference."
That's the inertia that a new format has to fight, rightly or wrongly.
Douglas Adams once told me his favourite multi-lingual joke:
A Gendarme is patrolling Paris, when he glances down an alley, and sees a man standing at the end of the alley, with his back to the Gendarme, and his hands in front of his groin.
The Gendarme calls out "Monsieur! Defence de pisser!"
The man replies, "Je ne pisse pas! Je m'abuse!"
To which the Gendarme replies, "Ah...vive le sport!"
Perhaps if you get used to typing since you were 16 your "upper limbs" are getting used to the strain on them. Or do the tennis stars get a "tennis arm"?
You mean "Tennis elbow"? Yes, I believe that's a recognised medical condition.
Heh - I remember when I first heard about RSI etc. from computers, asking my mother (who is a nurse) why musicians don't get RSI. Her answer: Well, they do.
Nintendo should have kept the $199 price and include a GBA pack-in. The general customer will see TWO systems for the price of a PS2 and Xbox, one game system which is portable, that can go on the family vacation and it has plenty of games to boot.
Or, in my case, I'd see the combo pack and think "What the hell? I've already got a GBA! Why should I pay for another one?!"
If you have a problem, they will sell you an RF adapter.
I don't know how it works elsewhere, but they couldn't get away with that in the UK. If the product does not work as described, then there's no way they can force you to buy something else to make it work, rather than give you a refund.
If you need an RF adapter your prehistoric GE television probably shouldn't be playing a Gamecube anyway.
In the UK, this would be fine - as long as they made this clear when you bought the product, of course:-)
Tim
Re:turing was a gay man!
on
Review: U-571
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
Ha - this brings to mind one of my favourite quotations of all time, from Jack Good, one of the people who worked with Turing at Bletchley Park during the war:
"Fortunately the authorities did not know that Turing was a homosexual. Otherwise we might have lost the war."
Of course, abrupt, compatiblity-breaking, "insanely great" progress is one big reason Apple's got 4% marketshare while MS has the rest.
I think that's a bit unfair - Apple's record on backwards compatibility is pretty good - better than MS I would say.
As someone I know once pointed out to me, Apple once pulled off one of the most impressive bits of software engineering in the mass market - they changed their hardware architecture (68k -> PPC) and the vast majority of the user base didn't notice (in terms of compatibility).
This type of thing is also used in 3D Studio Max - it's the main form of UI, except for toolbars. Sure, it looks a little different, but the functionality is exactly the same.
No - it says you can't use AdAware to uninstall the Spyware that comes with the player. Nowhere does it say that it will uninstall Adaware from your system. These are two completely different things.
If the license section being quoted in this story is correct, then under UK law, the guy could probably be prosecuted under the Computer Misuse Act. (ignoring vagaries of internet/jurisdiction etc)
As a game developer, I can back this up re: driver problems. We had a crash bug in the Matrox G400 OpenGL driver, and supplied Matrox with an example program.
They then asked us what our program was doing - we thought "Er, aren't you the driver writers? Can't you tell?"
So we gave them the source in the end, including some of our engine. Eventually they came back and said that it was a problem, but they wouldn't be fixing it as the G400 was not their latest hardware, and so it had lower priority. They might fix it in the future - maybe.
BTW, at the time, the G400 was the latest card you could buy from Matrox. They basically told us that they wouldn't fix bugs in the drivers for their most recent currently shipping product.
True, windowsupdate.microsoft.com is a big fat target too, but at least that was designed primarily with security in mind, and AFAIK it hasn't been hacked yet in the 4 years since it was introduced.
Slashdot Mirror
Oh give me a freaking break! Dr. Who did not have big budgets.
Have you any idea what $100,000 could buy you in 1977?! I seriously doubt the BBC spent $2m a year on Dr Who in the 70s.
But maybe it's just me.
Tim
Joking, right? Last of the Summer Wine must hold that record, by about 15 years longer than Red Dwarf :-)
Tim
That's assuming they really are fixed...
-- Code Complete, Steve McConnell
Tim
Thanks - I'll give it a try, the SB is not as far away as possible, but it's not right next to the CPUs either.
/ONECPU in boot.ini :-(
Thing is, I didn't get it so much on Win2k - I use XP now. It comes and goes, but it's fairly consistent.
Tim
PS. I've tried all sorts of software hacks to get rid of it - processor affinity on the drivers, etc. - but the only one that really works is
What I'd like is solid tested drivers, and a clear separation between the actual core driver, and all the other crap they shovel into the box (all that LiveWare nonsense).
Also, I'd like them to properly test the drivers too. I've got an SBLive on an SMP machine, and I get clicks and crackles all the time. (If I disable the 2nd CPU, it's fine). A friend has the same problem.
Tim
And you doing the same thing to tens or hundreds of people on here is somehow not as bad..?
Tim
Doom took a year? If I remember correctly, Doom was about a year late when it came out...am I wrong?
Tim
You'd have to present some hard data to debate that.
Again, you wouldn't have to for most people. They're not going to buy an LP just because the first time you play it, it might sound better than a CD (but probably not on their eqpt). I know I've had LPs I've played about 8 times before they started to sound crap, as they got covered in dust etc.
Basically, CDs saved people like me from endlessly trying to clean LPs so they don't crackle and pop all the time.
Tim
Or possibly like an average consumer?
That's the point - I don't mind if audiophiles or whatever you want to call them will endlessly pursue the perfect sound, but they're in the minority. Quite a small minority.
And the only reason CDs won out is because they sound better after many listenings, not because they sound better.
Wrong, they won because they sound better. On the average Joe's equipment. I used to get very frustrated at the noise, clicks, pops, cracks, rumbles and rustles of LPs. Since switching to CD, I've almost never noticed such a problem. Also, as a vinyl loving friend of mine used to be fond of saying: "CDs are 15% convenience."
Sure if you buy a Linn Axis Nutter Bastard or whatever, you might be able to get LPs to sound better than CDs (although I'm in the cynics' camp here), but you won't get the average consumer to spend £500+ on a turntable. Aint gonna happen. Therefore CDs sound better, on the average consumer's equipment, to the average consumer. And surely that's one of the main goals of a mass market consumer format.
And, IIRC, that's why DVD Audio never splashed onto the scene, because when they did consumer listening tests, something like 9/10 people said "Huh? I can't tell the difference."
That's the inertia that a new format has to fight, rightly or wrongly.
Tim
Douglas Adams once told me his favourite multi-lingual joke:
:)
A Gendarme is patrolling Paris, when he glances down an alley, and sees a man standing at the end of the alley, with his back to the Gendarme, and his hands in front of his groin.
The Gendarme calls out "Monsieur! Defence de pisser!"
The man replies, "Je ne pisse pas! Je m'abuse!"
To which the Gendarme replies, "Ah...vive le sport!"
Tim
You mean "Tennis elbow"? Yes, I believe that's a recognised medical condition.
Heh - I remember when I first heard about RSI etc. from computers, asking my mother (who is a nurse) why musicians don't get RSI. Her answer: Well, they do.
Duh.
Tim
Huh? There are no 'other local taxes' on purchases. What are you talking about?
As opposed to the US, where half the things I've bought while visiting had the wrong price on them, because they don't include the X% local sales tax.
Look to the mote in thine own eye.
Tim
Or, in my case, I'd see the combo pack and think "What the hell? I've already got a GBA! Why should I pay for another one?!"
Pretty sure I wouldn't be alone in that.
Tim
I don't know how it works elsewhere, but they couldn't get away with that in the UK. If the product does not work as described, then there's no way they can force you to buy something else to make it work, rather than give you a refund.
If you need an RF adapter your prehistoric GE television probably shouldn't be playing a Gamecube anyway.
In the UK, this would be fine - as long as they made this clear when you bought the product, of course :-)
Tim
Ha - this brings to mind one of my favourite quotations of all time, from Jack Good, one of the people who worked with Turing at Bletchley Park during the war:
Tim
So wouldn't that be "GNU/Linux-like commands"?
Ow! *Ow!* Stop it!
Tim
I think that's a bit unfair - Apple's record on backwards compatibility is pretty good - better than MS I would say.
As someone I know once pointed out to me, Apple once pulled off one of the most impressive bits of software engineering in the mass market - they changed their hardware architecture (68k -> PPC) and the vast majority of the user base didn't notice (in terms of compatibility).
Which is no mean feat, IMHO.
Tim
This type of thing is also used in 3D Studio Max - it's the main form of UI, except for toolbars. Sure, it looks a little different, but the functionality is exactly the same.
Tim
No - it says you can't use AdAware to uninstall the Spyware that comes with the player. Nowhere does it say that it will uninstall Adaware from your system. These are two completely different things.
If the license section being quoted in this story is correct, then under UK law, the guy could probably be prosecuted under the Computer Misuse Act. (ignoring vagaries of internet/jurisdiction etc)
Tim
As a game developer, I can back this up re: driver problems. We had a crash bug in the Matrox G400 OpenGL driver, and supplied Matrox with an example program.
They then asked us what our program was doing - we thought "Er, aren't you the driver writers? Can't you tell?"
So we gave them the source in the end, including some of our engine. Eventually they came back and said that it was a problem, but they wouldn't be fixing it as the G400 was not their latest hardware, and so it had lower priority. They might fix it in the future - maybe.
BTW, at the time, the G400 was the latest card you could buy from Matrox. They basically told us that they wouldn't fix bugs in the drivers for their most recent currently shipping product.
We were not exactly impressed.
Tim
A full 1 year warranty? Really? Even on the battery?
Tim
Even though the player is payware, I'm sure it's worth it. It sure looks like it from the screenshots
Hmmm...having looked at those screenshots, I'm curious - the Zaurus is a Linux PDA, yes?
And...
Support the companies that support Free Software. Buy something from theKompany.
So why does that player software have icons from Windows XP all over the place?
I do hope they've licensed them from Microsoft, given they're charging money for the product.
Tim
Just curious - were you actually referring to the Tatung Einstein, the Apple Newton, and the Acorn Archimedes, or was it a coincidence?
Tim
True, windowsupdate.microsoft.com is a big fat target too, but at least that was designed primarily with security in mind, and AFAIK it hasn't been hacked yet in the 4 years since it was introduced.
You obviously missed this.
Tim
I do love it when people insist that their grammer (sic) is good :-)
Tim