Friday, January 7, 2005

Vaporware of the Year -- 8:58 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

A year has passed. That must mean it's time for Wired's Vaporware of 2004. A couple of entries seem a little harsh, but #3 and #1 pretty much are the definition of vaporware. Please note: Duke Nukem Forever was given a lifetime achievement award last year and so does not appear this year, although it would still be deserving. Thanks Evil Avatar.

Thursday, January 6, 2005

DOOM3: Resurrection of Evil Preview -- 4:45 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Gamespy posted a preview of Resurrection of Evil, the upcoming expansion for DOOM3 from id and Nerve. They talk a bit about the story and new weapons. They even mention that Threewave will be doing a Capture-the-Flag variant and four maps for multiplayer. Good stuff. I know some people were really down on DOOM3, but I like it and am looking forward to more. Thanks Shacknews.

Update! Not to be outdone, IGN has a preview of their own. Be forewarned, this one is a bit more spoileriffic than the Gamespy one.

Flash Drive -- 2:29 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

A while back I read Ars Technica's review of several flash drives. I broke down the other day and got a 512M SimpleTech Bonzai Express. It was rated highly in that review and was dirt cheap at Sam's Club ($44.79). When that article was written, the 256M version was going for $80! It's nice not to have to burn a disc just to tote some files around. It's more convenient and, with USB 2.0, a lot faster. 512M guarantees that I'll be able to tote just about anything my little heart desires. It worked right away in Linux with a quick and painless addition to my /etc/fstab.

When I tried to plug it into the front ports on a WinXP box, it locked up solid. There must not be enough juice getting to them. Thankfully the back ports worked fine. That taught me the hard way that WinXP's FAT32 filesystem is not any better than Win98's filesystem at recovering from hard resets. I guess ext3's journalling system has spoiled me. On the rare occasion that I've needed to hard reset my Linux box (mainly when my previous USB 2.0 card was freaking out on me), ext3 recovers the journals in the blink of an eye and the boot continues as if nothing happened.

The Master comments: That's why I usually recommend people not use FAT32 for their drives. It sucks. NTFS is much better. However, ext3 does not have to deal with the wonders that are the BSOD in Windows.

If Your Mommy is a Commie . . . -- 9:08 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Ahh BillG, we love you! In a wide-ranging softball interview on news.com.biz.net.edu.dot he makes some interesting claims. On the subject of Internet Explorer vulnerabilities, he says:

Well, no one invests more in security of their browser than what we do on IE. The key message we have for people is they should turn on auto update because if you turn on auto update, without you having to think about it and go through a bunch of user interface or know about this or that or the other thing, you can know that there are hundreds of very smart people who are constantly improving your browser and making sure that you're safe. And so with auto update and IE, you're getting the top security team and the quickest response team that there is anywhere.

Somehow, the interviewer didn't see the need for a follow-up question here. Sheesh. The doozy comes when he talks about I.P. rights and the patent system:

No, I'd say that of the world's economies, there's more that believe in intellectual property today than ever. There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist.

Ahh yes. If you don't have an answer, play the commie card! Way to know your "ad hominem" attacks! Of course, it has been long-standing MS policy to brand anyone who dislikes them as commies. Granted, there are more than a few in the Slashdot crowd whose politics are significantly left of center, but come on. I'm as conservative as the day is long and I think it's stupid. Oh well. During his Windows Media Center presentation, the computer both locked up and later BSODed. Yep, MS technology--as solid as the earth's crust on which it sits. Thanks Slashdot.

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