Posts by Mage
1824 posts • joined Friday 23rd November 2007 08:43 GMT
Page:
PMP
But you can rip all your personally owned DVDs and CDs to your PMP already, easily everywhere and legally many places.
RIAA et Al fighting the wrong war.
Posted in Cisco settles open source case
Probably a mistake
I thought OpenWRT started off as customisation of the Linux source Linksys had published for some prehistoric WRT
Some of th e cheaper ones use VXworks. I guess when Cisco took over they "forgot" the rules.
My Linksys WRT54G3G runs WhiteRussian OpenWRT and my PCEngines Wrap1E runs the Kamikaze OpenWRT very happily.
I have the source of my Archos605 and my DLink DI634, but neither of those allow loading of 3rd party firmware. :(
It's of limited value to Linksys purchasers, but that is not the point, the point is really the community of people (including other commercial companies) using customised GNU/Linux for embedded applications.
It's the removal or at least the default
XP.
Firefox is properly installed as default. I have Opera. I have IE7
Why does ONLY Foxit PDF reader launch IE7?
MS's own XP tools to set default don't work properly.
Ditto on default Image editor (PSP, but occasionally MSPaint or MS Photo editor launch)
The problem is not inclusion of IE, but the consistently buggy default application for a file, which is set in more than a few places and has never entirely worked.
.html is labled as MSWord doc! (though FF does launch).
MS have broke their own product.
Posted in Intel playing virtual silly buggers
Ha ha
If you need XP that much, why install Win7 at all. The only thing it seems to add is DX10.
Are we going to see WINE on Ubuntu NATIVELY (no virtualisation or emulation) run win apps better?
Have MS lost the XP source?
Do Intel & MS talk these days with Intel promoting Moblin.
XP on Win7?
Yawn
Why bother
Posted in Love on the buses: The S-100 and me
Not really 16 bit8088 8086
Most S100 used 8080 originally and then later Z80 or 8085. Few used 8088/8086 as it wasn't really 16bit. 68000 was really the first S100 16Bit. I remember Cromemco UNIX like Cromix 5 years later on dual Z80/68000 "minicomputer".
the 8088 uses an 8085 8 bit data / 16 bit address multiplexed and 4 extra address bits on the 8088 for 1024K MAXIMUM. But the various peripherals and screen RAM was mapped between the 640K and 1024K. The 8086 had 16 bit data on external bus otherwise identical to 8088.
Additionally the 8086 and 8088 are not true 16bit CPUs but basically the 8085 with a few 16 bit instructions and only 64K memory blocks like the 8080/Z80/8085. Later a Z80 clone had segment page memory manager for 1024k and the 8bit Z80 in Amstrad PCW could access 512K.
So the 640K was really a limitation of the small segmented address space of the pseudo 16bit 8088 and 8086. The amount of contiguous RAM depended on if text, hercules, CGA, EGA or VGA to and extent. It was much later that TSRs (AKA dirvers) could be loaded into unused holes in the 1024k as early DOS didn't support it and early IBMs had 128K, 125k, 384k, 512K or 640K physical ram. Later 1M physical DRAM was used.
The first real 16bit IBM PC was the 286, but DOS used it as an 8086. Only UNIX flavours of OS used it as a flat 16M address space.
The PC and DOS held back PC computing nearly 10 years as it was really not much different to the CP/M and 8080/8085/Z80 8bit machines, just more standardised.
Win7
MS are now in terminal delusion.
People won't buy a computer that can only run three applications. most Netbook users at least have Skype, browser, media player, email and and an application running. Media playback is one of the more attractive apps.
People / businesses won't buy new PCs with Win7 to run virtualised XP. They will run XP. Or Linux or OS X.
They need to sell ONE version of windows at one price for non-servers, with check boxes at install (and configuration any time later). And One version for servers that by default has all the junk off.
By default the Desktop version also should have server service, eye candy all all else unneeded junk off with a Wizard for those that need to turn it off.
An a LAN/WAN button to turn off EVERY serivice/feature on the gateway interface if you connected to Internet directly rather than a firewalled LAN.
They have completely lost the plot
Alternatives
It's more likely to get launched and in position than Avanti's Hylass1 launched on Falcon9.
You won't be from an undefined location. You either get an IP related to country your terminal is supposed to be in or get an IP of country the hub/earth station is in.
Posted in ARIN heads off IP address land grab
NAT, IPs
So nearly 1/3 of IPs are to a handful of US companies & Universities, about 1360M unused addresses . That would last a few years or so
While it's true that VOIP (particularly SIP) wasn't designed with NAT in mind there are working solutions.
VPN also solves it for companies as it can be forwarded via NAT
Skype works just fine. We have simple NAT /IPtables rules for Skype an other things,
Until every gadget and PC and site has IP6, everyone needs IP4. No migration plan :-(
So the Big Lads will have to give up some of their 1,300,000,000,000 unused addresses
Content
Never mind the stupid graphic design/layout skills, there is some useful content.
I saved a few myself
wget -r will save all of them :-)
wget -r -np will save one site.
(Linux and Windows versions available)
Mines the one with the "css for Dummies".
Posted in SiliconDust HDHomeRun
MPEG4
You mention HD
UK HD on DTT is going to use DVBt-2. Does the Tuner HW support this?
(French and some others use DVB-t MPEG4 for HD on DTT).
About 16 countries including Ireland and Estonia use (or will use) MPEG4 rather than MPEG2 exclusively for DTT SD TV (not just HD). Does it support that? The Sony Play TV was a long time before they added MPEG4 reception to the PS3 (odd seeing as it does MPEG4 for BD) and it still will not play MPEG4 recordings (though pauses Live Irish TV, which is record/play of MPEG4).
A lot of unanswered questions.
Even Turbo 11g (108Mbps) or 11n 250Mbps may not stream TV reliably, especially if more than one person is using WiFi. You really need wired ethernet or special Video QOS WiFi for broadcast quality TV streaming.
Posted in Windows 7 gets built in XP mode
Why not
Scrap it
And simply do a XP ver 2 with WinFS, DX10, option for Vista/Win7 eyecandy etc...
Is there anything other than DX10 that real users actually want in Vista/Win7 that XP doesn't do?
Posted in Symbian show struggles for identity
Confusion
Don't confuse Symbian with looks of weird S60 GUI.
Gnome, KE, IceWM or Android aren't Linux.
Ermmm...
Android isn't really about Linux. It's about out doing iPhone at having CONTROL. It's a proprietary version of Java on Linux really. I'm amazed the way FOSSers are all gungHo about Android, They don't understand the Chocolate factory.
Posted in Can the iPhone save NFC?
Supermarket
"If product tagging within supermarkets (one of the many lauded applications for RFID) took off, consumers could pull up nutrition information, allergy warnings, supermarket price comparisons,"
Actually you can do it today with a barcode reader. Only better camera phones can read the 1D EAN/UPC though. The fixed focus cheapo cameras can only do the 2D codes. I have a nice wireless/serial laser reader battery LCD terminal.
The only useful thing I can think of for RFID is baggage handling. Even auto parcel sorting can use barcodes fine.
You only need to store a unique ID. Storage capacity is thus irrelevant.
RFIDs are also a security hazard and never intended nor should ever have been used in passports or creditcards. They are indeed a solution desperate for a problem to solve.
maybe identifying your Coat?
Pré
Pré as I have no idea how to type Prē
Stupid name.
Posted in Photocops: Home Office concedes concern
Buildings
Is there a SINGLE case of Terrorists taking photos of buildings?
Besides there are cheap covert cameras.
This is State Organised Terrorism.
The killing, burning, beating, destruction is only a means to an end with terrorists. The aim is to frighten and disrupt normal life. Too many governments doing the job for them.
Posted in iPhone VoIP tussle heats up
VOIP
It makes sense on WiFi and possibly on LTE, But not most Mobile networks as they exist.
But realistically EDGE/3G/HSPA/EVDO mobile can be very poor for SIP VOIP or Skype and the Sector of Cell will support maybe 1/10th as many calls. Latency is 90ms to 2000ms.
Also Data packages are artificially cheap. In Ireland the Data to User works out to User at about 150 times cheaper on Vodafone to 500 times cheaper on 3. The cost for the operator per MBybte is slightly higher for Data than regular voice calls.
So a service offered at a loss (Skype) has the potential to give the users a poorer service and force the operators to increase data charges by x 50 at least if voice & SMS revenue collapsed
Finding WWII valves
The other machine at Bletchley uses valves.
Likely such things as 6V6, EF39.
you can get them on eBay. it's possible someone in Russia or China makes them. Some are still used in retro Audio Amplifers.
You can even buy 807 as used in WWII 19 set transmitter.
Yes the 1st Bombe was Polish and the guys that brought it never knew till years after war what happened in Bletchley.
Posted in Google kicks Amazon in the Kindle
Google's free titles
I've downloaded titles from Gutenberg
But I can't find these 500,000 free PDFs. Google's Book search is aomething else.
As Bruce says...
There is no penalty for attempting to carrying on a banned item. You are not logged when it is taken off you.
The terrorist only needs to succeed ONCE.
The security screening has to work 100%, not 99.99999%
Comparison with Freeview
Of course 10% to 15% maybe don't have good freeview signal. And maybe 90% in Ireland :-)
I think it's worth it for SD recording. A sky+ or SkyHD box won't record or playback at all if the subscription is cancelled.
BASIC
Dartmouth College should sue MS for stealing BASIC
ETH Zurich/Logitech and Xerox sue MS for the Mouse
Xerox sue MS for Windows
Bell Labs sue them for adding subdirectories and UNIX like commands
Digital Research/Novell/Caldera sue them for MSDOS and Filesystem.
IBM and DEC (now most IP owned by HP) for making NT out of VMS and OS/2
Mosiac for messing up the Browser
Bell Labs and Sun for Mashing Up C, C++ and Java as C#
Borland for pinching ideas from Turbo Pascal for VB6
Xerox sue them for having Networking.
I saw touch screen systems and multiprocessing 20 years ago.
All the decent stuff they have they copied or bought the Company or Rights
SQL, Visio.
The only two really good original programs MS have done are Excel & Word (for Windows, not DOS), ironically first launced on Apple as MS Windows on DOS didn't really work till version 3.x
MS needs to throw away WinCE/Mo and NT/Vista/Win7 as they have trashed them. Spend the money on rewriting them properly from scratch.
Posted in Devolo dLAN AVEasy Wireless G
"in many cases"
Yes there are occassions where this is needed because WiFi won't work or cables are difficult.
I alluded to that in the OP.
But we do need proper standards testing of these, which doesn't exist. At the end of the day if the designers can't make them work correctly then we need a different solution. The Radio Spectrum is assigned and protected by National laws and International treaty.
It may be that these need an allocated band. Or limited to the difficult buildings (which often block the transmissions from leaving the building).
Most people don't need them. They do pollute the Spectrum, especially some models/makes. Since some are much worse than others it suggests the correct standards and testing is not getting applied.
Posted in Devolo dLAN AVEasy Wireless G
EMC
These are becoming de facto by stealth,
In reality they are unlicensed transmitters, getting CE mark under the wrong regulations. Mains wiring is not shielded, screened, coaxial or twisted pair. These things radiate a huge amount of RF outside the home destroying MF & HF reception of analogue and newer DRM services.
For people too lazy or mean to run CAT5 cable in many cases.
Seek Time
I don't think there is much difference in seek time between a good 1GByte drive circa 1999 and a 1TByte drive today.
Still in the same order of magnitude.
Mine's the one with a voice coil actuated zipper
It doesn't matter
No amount of testing and bug fixes can make a poor design into a good one.
Windows is past its "sell by".
Posted in Fring looks to ID to boost ego coffers
Revenue
And fring have your usernames and passwords too.
Maybe when they have enough they could sell those. Some might be the same as used for PayPal or other services.
I use a different password for everything.
Mines the one with fat notebook in pocket
Misleading
Quote
"The stats to back this up looked at how 100m Europeans are beyond the reach of fixed broadband. Mobile costs ten per cent of putting in fixed broadband, and people on broadband are six times more productive. By building more mobile infrastructure, we can build our way out of recession."
Only if you compare digging with only enough masts for 100kbps at peak time.
Even LTE will only deliver under 400kbps per person with 20 people on sector.
There are lots of smart ways to deliver Broadband. Mobile isn't one of them and isn't cheap.
£200 a Gigabyte if you are over the usually 1/2 to 1/5th size real broadband Cap.
Bit Torrent, ISPs, Gadgets,
BitTorrent aka P2P has legitimate uses. You don't need Pirate bay to download Linux via BitTorrent or use Sky's Kontiki.
The clue is in the name.
breaking copyright
But Pirate bay DOES make it easier for people to infringe copyright..
CDs may be overpriced. The RIAA may be idiots and The Labels may be ripping off Artists. But free is too cheap and would mean the end of new music.
I hope they do get prosecuted and shut down. But with charge of aiding copyright infringement.
Posted in Nokia to preinstall Skype on handsets
VOIP
The "3" solution and iSkoot make practical sense. On average 3G/HSDPA is only good enough about 20% of the time for Skype or SIP based VOIP.
It will be great for home WiFi hostspot. The current SIP client on E series phones also was intended primarily for in office VOIP systems. not VOIP on 3G.
Posted in Kensington Universal Notebook Dock
Ports
In the start of the article it's correctly mentioned that the value of a dock is to give the laptop the missing ports that are on a desktop.
This gives audio, USB, ethernet and VGA.
Virtually every real laptop has those. The USB expansion can be done with £4 hub.
What about firewire, serial, parallel, HDMI, PS/2 ports? Any or all of those would be useful. I think this is a waste of money.
A Dubious value USB to Video (you won't play games or run Aero Glass or decent video on that), basic USB audio, USB to ethernet, which is a usually really poor and a 4 port USB hub.
This is not a a dock but a dodgy USB gadget.
Posted in Microsoft just wants to be touched
Windows
Rubbish.
XP is Windows, Vista and socalled Windows 7 are "Windows".
Windows Mobile 6.5 is a franken version of Windows CE. Which isn't at all windows either.
BSD, UNIX, Ubuntu, Android, Solaris and HPUX have more in common with each other than brain dead WinCE/Mo has with real Windows.
Posted in Ofcom snatches spectrum
Stupid
Stupid Stupid
3G/HSPA is CDMA based. It is woefully inefficient, scales badly and cells breathe horribly, especially on a rural 900Mhz.
This should be EDGE2 on GSM (more spectrum efficient), WiMax, Flash-OFDM or LTE. W-CDMA900 is obsolete spectrum wasting technology.
Posted in Nokia E63 Qwerty keyboard smartphone
3G / HSDPA
It does do 3G, just not HSDPA. That's 350kbps.
HSDPA can be 5Mbps. It can also be 50kbs. The HSDPA omission is only a issue using it as laptop modem in a good signal area.
If you REALLY want Mobile Internet for the laptop a dedicated modem is better anyway, so you still have a phone while online.
Smart phones
So how many Symbian, RIM and OSX are there sold last 6 months compared with
Limo
Android
Access
WinMobile
Symbian hasn't too much to worry about. But WinMo/Ce is doomed.
Posted in Amazon: Kindle 2 to sell internationally
Features
it uses opaque reflective very slow but ZERO power to maintain eInk display technology.
Inherently a touch onscreen keypad would take about 1s to appear and vanish and can't be animated.
Inherently you can't have a backlight, each dot is solid ball or cylinder that is half white, half black and physically rotated by a voltage pulse lasting nearly 0.5 to 1 second, hence slow response time.
It does mean zero consumption while reading.
They are constrained also by standard eInk display sizes.
I think they could do a better keyboard with rectangular staggered columns and more height for display if a taller one becomes available.
The Sony book with identical screen does have an LED front light option for the dark. I've played with the Sony model which has nicer styling. The Sony is also a 2nd class MP3 player.
The Rex illiad is also same screen tech, but with WiFi and Touch Screen annotation options (too expensive.
It needs WiFi and connection to PC for up/down-load as well as 3G.
These are all still to expensive
Posted in BBC seen to yield over website snooping
Geo IP UK
So basically they have stopped giving info of UK visitors to the USA 3rd party, but still give everyone elses'
Back to Satellite TV and SW Radio for me. Then no-one knows where you are.
I wondered why they wanted my home town.
Posted in HP UK pulls Linux from all new netbooks
MS Taxe$
Dell users have successfully claimed back Windows cost.
However the Windows may be subsidized by shovelware/Trailware. Linux then to compete needs similar rubbish pay SW trails you need to remove :( to compete :)
Posted in Windows 7 'upgrade' doesn't mark XP spot
Upgrade?
If Win7 inplace upgrade of vista works well that would prove that it's really Vista SP3.
(There is a separate Vista SP2 coming out)
Ha ha
Quote:
Thanks to audiophiles who are happy to sacrifice some convenience for better sound reproduction.
The HiFI reviews went gaga 30 years ago. A Good Valve amp is better than a cheap transistor one. But a good transistor amp is x10 better than any Valve amp. There have been plenty of rubbish valve amps too.
These are the people that believe in Litz wire for speakers, marker pens around CD edges, Gold on connectors (which is often worse), rant about "oxygen free copper" (all copper wire is the same).
The loudspeakers are weakest link and the ones in the "review " are rubbish.
A remote suggests electronic volume control. Good ones are fine, bad ones rubbish. I have an old hifi made when all electronic volume controls were rubbish. It uses a remote controlled motor to move a real mechanical volume control. This is a HYBRID amp. If it was a real valve amp it would use that motorised scheme and relays to select inputs.
This is aimed at posers.
Where is the double blind listening test with a reference amplifier?
Where are the IM, noise, distortion, frequency response figures?
I realise El Reg is not an HiFi Review mag, Which given the rubbish they print for last 20 years is probably a very good thing :-)
Posted in Intel plucks power from TV signals
Light Program
Yes it became R2 and R4 (The Home service is now on 198kHz). But in the olden days of Radio Caroline, Radio Nord See, 208 and pre fab 4, The Light Program *WAS* on 200kHz.
In 1971 I saw a demo of a small transmitter lighting up a 40W tube.
In about 1967 I'm sure I built a Bernard Bambini book circuit that "harvested" RF to power a one transistor radio, Not a crystal set as it used Germanium diodes.
Tuning
The existing boxes are obsolete anyway, but actually can tune this and usually automatically.
A lot of hysteria?
Hysteria:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055474230
Analysis (just the facts)
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=58802979#post58802979
Issues:
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=58819520&postcount=489
There is plausible rumour that to make the process LESS transparent for the Rights Holders and protect privacy that eircom will ensure users IP is changed after each warning.
Since eircom ALREADY had T&C to disconnect copyright infringers and other FUP aspects, and the Rights Holders can't monitor what eircom does, has much changed?
eircom for various reasons were likely to lose a court case. (T&C, Irish law on assisting, their misleading advertising)..
The Labels went for the biggest ISP first. Others were really worried eircom would lose as that would mean they would all have to install monitoring (which doesn't work, expensive and slows network).
After a suitable period the other national ISPs will sign up. There are over 30 Irish ISPs. About 5 viable in the long run.
Posted in Russian rides Phantom to OS immortality
Good Idea
Actually I started work on a multiprocessor distributed concept like this in 1987. It's definitely the way forward.
Linux is a copy of a 1976 OS trying to Mimic OS X and Windows.
OS X (it's self based on BSD, a free copy of a 1976 OS) and Windows can only get more bloated, more unreliable and poorer performance.
Posted in Netbooks: A bit popular
Power
In 386 / 486 days you needed the most powerful PC to run CAD etc.
Now only high end games and Climate Modelling needs High CPU power.
Posted in Fring snuggles with Last.fm
Security and trust.
You do of course give away all the logon details to Fring of every service you use via Fring.
They don't make any money yet.
Anyone see a snag here?
Posted in White Space lobby leaps to Europe
White Space
That's what is between their ears.
It causes interference. The concept is inherently broken
Mobile 3G/HSDPA
2Mbps a minimum?
It can hardly manage that as an average sector throughput. With loading (24 users 3.6Mbps, 48 users 7.2Mbps) or poor signal the speed drops to under 50kbps and latency rises from 100ms to 2000ms
It's called "Mobile" because that's what it does. Nothing less than 20MHz per channel LTE with N=6 (with urban sized cells) can get close to 2Mbps in terms comparable to Cable or DSL. A rural peak 250Mbps sector capacity has about 10Mbps to 20Mbps average sector speed, thus might do 500kbps to 1Mbps loaded speeds. At half the cell edge to mast distance you have 1/4 or less signal and less than 1/4 of rural users are inside that 1/4 area. Every time the distance doubles the speed is less than a 1/4 of the peak, assuming no-one else on line.
