Linspire uninspired by Fernando's takeaway, olé!

Linspire's Robertson embraces Windows Media

Fernando,

I read your article entitled, Linspire's Robertson embraces Windows Media.

I wanted to clarify my position for you and your readers since you seem to find it at odds with previously stated positions and I don't believe it is.

I am a strong advocate for open standards. I encourage everyone to use open standards and do my best to point out the risks of using proprietary standards. With our recent implementation of Windows Media, I took care to point out how Microsoft had withheld DRM as an example of the risks using proprietary standards.

As strongly as I feel about open standards, there's also the reality of what the world uses and that a monopoly has ruled for more then a decade. For example, Microsoft office file formats are ubiquitous. Therefore Linspire must allow one click opening and editing of .xls (MS Excel), .ppt (MS PowerPoint) and .doc (MS Word) documents regardless of whether they are open or not. I'd prefer the world was using an open XML standard, but that's not where we are at. Given the realities of the world we live in, it is not inconsistent to support the .doc format and at the same time suggest open formats are better.

The same is true with Windows Media. Many popular sites like Comedy Central, Fox News, etc. use Windows Media exclusively. I wish they wouldn't, but they do. So Linspire must do our best to support them if we're to have a great consumer experience and make desktop Linux practical for the mass market.

You stated that Linspire is paying Microsoft to use Windows Media. There is no evidence of that. I would suggest you dig deeper to find the truth.

Michael Robertson

Half Life 2 stupid, crass, not thought out

What a complete bag of crap !

I've waited for over 12 months to buy a copy of Half-Life 2 and my total enjoyment of the product has been completely destroyed by the stupid, crass, un-thought out implementation of Valves Steam bollox!

Not everyone has/or can get a broadband connection ! Luckily I have 128k isdn, dialup users must be totally besides themselves with rage.

HL2 is a single player game, but I have to wait for upto a bloody hour for this Steam crap to update itself so that I can play a game! Shame the offline mode doesn't work ! I've tried disconnecting my games machine from the network only to be informed that all of a sudden the wonderful Steam (crap!) has lost my offline account details! But it manages to find them to download god knows how much more Steam (CRAP!).

I've lost it with your company's completely single minded crass altitude, I want and demand a complete refund. No where on the retail packaging of HL2 does it state that this game is completely unplayable without a decent broadband connection! For godsake it's a single player game!

Congratulations!

Paul Drew

Finnish authority issues Internet Explorer warning

Mike,

Microsoft got a bit scared due to the unusually large media coverage received by the FICORA advisory in Finland. So they gave out a statement yesterday evening, stating that Windows XP patched with SP2 will protect customers, and adviced to upgrade to Windows XP SP2, or to patch the existing XPs with SP2.

Additionally, both FICORA and Microsoft Finland are surprised to see how fast and how far away the original advisory did spread. The Inquirer is mentioned, too! See (again, in Finnish only):

Here.

So, FICORA removed the original advisory from their web pages, and stated that "it got too far". The original content of the advisory, warning of a severe security threat, is stated to be still in effect.

Regards
Jarkko

Anyone help with this Hardware Problem?

Greetings Inquiring minds.

I've dropped the Mageek and email with an issue I had previously, and that worked out quite well... so I'll try again.

HELP. I'm a systems integrator with a rather unique (I think) problem. We recently built up a Dual Opteron 250 beast for a client, complete with 16gb of ram, raided sata hard disks, Tyan K8W Thunder mobo and a Gigabyte GF 5950 Ultra GT AGP card. The box is very nice and loaded Enterprise Server 2003 like a bat out of hell. The problems began after loading drivers.

Installing the latest Forceware drivers, enabling 3d acceleration and DX under 2003 went fine.. the other component drivers loaded fine as well. Things went pearshaped however, once we enabled PAE. PAE is Physical Address Extension... and allows Windows to actually see and use the 16gb of ram goodness it was given, despite its 32bit base.

Once this was enabled.... the machine would reboot itself at the logo screen on startup... and then subsequently boot through into Windows without the Forceware drivers... instead loading the standard MS drivers. This happens with several different versions of Forceware (including the 2003 for extended 64bit version) and for several flavours of Windows Server and XP. XP 64bit isn't an option as the applications they need won't install.

Here is my problem. The client has to run a Windows based environment (and we've had this problem or a variation thereof under XP, 2000 Advance Server and 2003 Ent.) due to the particular apps they need. These apps require large amounts of memory AND 3D acceleration. I've tried to get help out of Microsoft, Gigabyte and nVidia... but none of them to date have been particularly helpful.

MS told me the card isn't supported.. although it is explicitly supported for 2003 Server (but not Enterprise). Note that everything works perfectly until PAE is started. They suggested I talk to Gigabyte and nVidia.

Gigabyte weren't any better... after several weeks and requests.. the only answer I got was a request for the revision number of the pcb I was using. That happened over a week ago, and I still haven't heard back.

nVidia don't talk directly to "end users"... their website suggests you talk to the manufacturer (ie Gigabyte). Despite this they do have an online question and answer forum. Their response to my situation was "Forceware drivers support PAE.. what version are you using and under which OS"? I replied with a complete list of all the combinations tried (which amounted to virtually everything) over a week ago. I'm yet to hear back.

Is this the only case of a Windows based machine trying to run OpenGL + >4gb memory? Linux should work fine with this... but unfortunately the client needs to run some poorly supported and overly expensive mining industry software that requires windows. If anyone has had a similar problem.. especially if they know how to get around it.. I'd be VERY VERY interested in hearing from you. Oh.. and if you work in Graphzilla or the Vole's driver dev teams.. by all means drop me a line :)

Free free to cut this up as you see fit.. I'd just love a hand getting a straight answer on why this doesn't work and how to make it work. In a nutshell:

Windows + PAE + 3d Acceleration = :(

Does anyone have experience or a workaround to get 3d accel under windows with PAE enabled?

Ta for wading thru that lot....

Best regards
Ben

Intel taking on water, shoring bottoms up

Oh come on... Its like you have missed the obvious. AMD has boo coo Linux standing and even dual core drivers in beta. Intel is way behind and to establish market dominace AMD has out Linux'ed / priced Intel.

Sheeze... Intel is taking on (L)water and trying to shore up its bottom end offerings by offering deep discounts. I am sure AMD is doing the oriental fandango too, its just they command a good presense in Asia.

Microsoft is the least of Intel's concerns..... It about dominance. I can't believe you guys missed this...

Ronny

Intel and Linux: Part Two

Could there be even more to the Intel Linux thing? A couple of weeks ago a story was posted http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=19615 that said that there would be three versions of the Xbox 2, one of them being a _fully functioning pc._ The question I have is what is inside this _PC._ Is it the same hardware that is in the Xbox 2 (IBM-something) http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=12475 or is it an Xbox 2 running on an x68 processor. Has Microsoft written the all of Windows XP to accommodate this new IBM power pc/Xbox? Will it be possible, if I so fancy, to mod the Xbox 2 and load OS X on this new Microsoft PC? Or finally, could the Xbox 2 a break away strategy for Microsoft to end this Wintel thing once and for all? I understand this is all rampant conjecture, but that is what makes the funny papers.

Thanks
Jimmy

Media Censorship

I justs read your last letter column and noticed the letter from Steve on media censorship, he writes:

"I will assume those talking about this huge censorship takeover are fellow media types and Leftist/liberals."

And so I am to conclude that leftists and liberals have no right to speak?

Sven Terje

More on lack of morals

Hello all,

I love all the so called "Conservatives" that expunge on the lack of morals on TV, Radio and the Internet. First of all if "Steve" had a brain or a knowledge of what the FCC is charged with doing he would realize that the FCC has no legal authority to manipulate content on the air waves or anywhere else for that matter.

The only thing that they're supposed to do is make sure that no broadcaster infringes on the frequency of another. That's it. Now if Steve is willing to own up to the fact that he wants a Christian nanny state than that's fine, but he's not going to get it.

True conservatism revolves around the protection of the constitution and individual liberty. Maybe he has a problem with individual like him deciding what they watch, he may be to dumb, but the tools are there. Every TV manufactured since the mid 90's has a V-Chip in it. Every broadcaster rates their programs as a guide for parents.

Making the right viewing choices for him and his family has never been easier so by my estimation his only problem is laziness. And if his TV doesn't have one of these fancy V-Chips then there are always the old fashion standbys that have been around since the dawn for Radio and TV. They're called the power and channel buttons, use them.

Secondly, I believe Steve wants to use his TV as a babysitter. That is not the job of a TV and if that's his plan maybe he should be castrated because he's to stupid to reproduce. I don't want to live in a country that's been child proofed. I want to live in a country that doesn't control the expression of individuals to protect some "group".

We all have minds and we all have choices, and if Steve for one second would get of his couch and turn of his TV he might just realize that. Oh and should anyone argue that the US is a Christian nation well here's my take on it:

Yes the US was founded by Christians, but it was founded by Christians that came from countries with state sponsored religion who realized what a bad idea that was. That's why the first amendment states: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Constitutional Conservative
Chris S

Falwellville, VA, USA (not the real city name, its what I like to call it because the good Dr. Jerry F. lives here)

What's with Canopus?

Hi guys,

You ran an article some time ago about Canopus and the lack of support despite Certified drivers etc. I think it was McGee.

We are still being kept totally in the dark with the fixes etc. Could you please revisit the story ?

On the contrary, Canopus has released their in house product 19 months ago and is now nearing release 3 to be paid for.

If that is released much later, lets say Jan 2005, that makes this a 21 month cycle or 7 month average for a full version release.

This equals a milking of the cash cow in the extreme.......all awhile leaving the originally SHIPPED and integrated editing app in the dust.

A petition was started some time ago because frustrations are just not being listened too. Canopus is definitely not gaining any friends and lots of people again are looking to switch elsewhere.

What happened to the Japanese honor system to be better than the West ???

Forums
http://forum.canopus.com/ubbthreads.php Petition
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?canppro

Press releases
http://www.canopus.us/us/canopus/canopus_pressreleases.asp

Interesting enough, the following is NOT listed on their own site...wonder why ??

http://www.sharbor.com/news/1022.html..announcement of certification

Thanks for listening

Name supplied

Every cloud has a Verizon lining

Hello,

I already expressed my objection to the ridiculous anti-business spin the Inq has put on this municipal wi-fi issue earlier this week, so I won't repeat any of that that, but I will point out that it was governments trying to ensure cheap phone service for all that created the anticompetitive telco giants--might there not be some kind of lesson in there?

Considering how quickly the technology will become obsolete it's hard to argue that wi-fi is suitable to be provided as a municipal service(fiber might be, though there's a township near here that tried that and it's been a total boondoggle)and comparing it to the power grid isn't exactly an endorsement of the concept.

James Carruthers