Damn you Vista, damn you to hell!

You dismissed Red Book CD round (16 bit 44.1khz stereo), but of the various distribution formats you mentioned, it's technically the best. (I'm assuming "concert DVD" means DVD videos, not DVD audio, which is indeed technically better.)

Fact is, with properly done dithering and filtering, Red Book CDs can sound about as good as the human ear can appreciate. Its main deficit is that it's stereo. Me, I'll take lossless stereo over lossy multichannel in a heartbeat.

The main problem with CDs these days is that they are butchered in the mastering stage. Bring up a track from a recent pop music CD in a waveform editor and you'll see how badly they are clipped in mastering. It's criminal I tell ya. And unlistenable.

I'm a DSP engineer btw. I've worked with all this stuff critically, including the high end 24 bit 192khz DC coupled stuff from RME.

Daniel Pouzzner

Subject: 306GHz PC tips up

I hope it comes with lead boxer shorts at that frequency.

w00tseaker

Subject: Nvidia Vista drivers

There are many companies saying their equipment is Vista ready but yet there are no working drivers for it. I have an HP Color LaserJet 3550n printer and there appears to be drivers listed on their website. When you follow the Vista link you seem to have the ability to obtain the software but when you click on "obtain software" you receive the message here stating they will be available by July of 2007.

"HP is committed to providing the best experience for HP products in the Windows Vista operating environment. Today, a solution for your product is not available in Microsoft's Windows Vista. Some drivers will be available as early as January 2007. HP expects to complete the certification process for applicable drivers by July 2007. Drivers will be posted as they are completed. HP aspires to provide the most up-to-date information on HP drivers and software. Please check back soon for updates."

If this isn't a smack to the chops of Microsoft I don't know what is.

Alex

Subject: Basescu & Bill

Bill (Gates) was in Romania and president Basescu told him pirated ms software helped romanian ... Bill just smiled. True, some years ago anyone could buy software on the street, now it's a different story. Stealing software also helped others. For example, Digital Research's CP/M OS was cloned in 1982 and sold as MS DOS by a micro software company (http://aaxnet.com/topics/msinc.html#dr).

Recently, BlueJ (which exists from 1994) visual programming approach was copied in 2005 into the more known Visual Studio 2005 by the same software company (http://blogs.zdnet.com/Burnette/?p=245). Pirated software ? The micro software company FILLED FOR A PATENT about his "innovation" included in Visual Studio.

Pretty cool.

florinmiu

Subject: Vista install woes

I have had enough! Vista has pushed me far enough! I recently got a free msdn business version of vista from my university. I wasn't going to buy vista so i thought i may as well give it a go. First i used microsofts update checker. Aparently my pc was ready for anything vista had to throw at it. Not so. I free'd up a partition and started up the dvd.

I selected my formatted partition only to find a message telling me it didn't fit the install criteria... It was active, it was ntfs, it was 100GB, and the hd was the only boot drive. What the hell else does it want. After 3 hours of google hell i gave up. Slammed my keyboard and smacked the power switch to off. The next day i started pissing around with my bios and stumbled upon my boot devices setup. After i disabled usb from the list it decided it had finally met its all important criteria.

The next goddamned problem was the sound. Aprently ASUS dont like vista cus they have crap driver support for it.

Next on the list i tried windows live messenger. Surely this would work ok. No of course not. It refused to log me in. Another 2 hours trawling google i discovered vista disliked my router. XP was best of buds with it but vista has higher standards it seems. A firmware upgrade was required.

On top of all that i couldn't make the quick launch icons large GRRRRR.

The reason i seem to be getting extremely agrevated is that in a few months time i will be installing vista on over 200 machines at work. I have a brand new machine. Work has not. So i do not look forward to the mass of problems that i will be facing.

Damn you vista, damn you to hell!

Som

Subject: Thanks, nECrO, well spoken

Thanks, nECrO, well spoken counter to Dave's criticism of my letter and reputation. I did write and subit a letter to counter also, but I did lose my temper, and it was best that it wasn't posted.

Jeff Dranetz

Subject: Everywhere Girl

http://www.york.gov.uk/

Another instance of the infamous everywhere girl.

Ian Thomson

Subject: Lithium

Sir,

If you will read the series on the "Lithium Crisis" that I have published on ResourceInvestor.com during the last two months you will see where your "bnoffin" gets a lot of his ideas.

Go to that web site and use its internal search engine to find articles on lithium, or use my name, Jack Lifton, as a search term.

Sincerely,

Jack Lifton

PS: I wrote "The Trouble with Tungsten" earlier in 2006 apparently to save this boffin the trouble of finding a title.

Subject: "intel" everywhere

In reading your column "Intel sues man over Intel name" it was interesting to hear of all the things "Intel"-branded — is Intel the corporate version of the Everywhere Girl? But there seemed to be one think missing. I didn't see anything about "Intel" branded condoms. Is that a secret, or did they miss the boat?

fred

Subject: Everywhere Girl, Time Travel & Pennywise

I was looking through some old paperwork from when I was in college and to my surprise, there was the Everywhere Girl! I had no idea this girl existed on Bank brochures from 2000 for Ferris State University!

..perhaps if I research her origins more I will discover the everywhere girl is actually Pennywise the Clown???

The all float Georgie!!!

Find proof here!!!

http://i159.photobucket.com/albums/t129/scottcarmichael/everywheregirl_2k.jpg

A concerned INQer (now armed w/ an inhaler and slingshot):

Scott Carmichael

Subject: 306GHz PC tips up

Of course, it's the 3.06 GHz P4 because of the 533 MHz FSB. For 306 GHz you would need a Tokamak fusion power plant to power it ha, ha...and a truck loaded with LN2... :):)

Cheers,
Deio

Subject: Second Life Spinola

Yessh, I read lots of good stuff on TheInq, but this just further proves how SL is horrible compared to the original that it copies. Take a peak at www.activeworlds.com and see whats been around since 95.

Joe

Subject: OUCH!

I'm embarrassed. Staff is fixing this glaringly obvious mistake asap.

Nestor Suarez
tigerdirect.com

Subject: 306GHz PC bought

I bought the system, and as i suspected the 306GHz PC is being cooled by a alien super cooled freezer at -2000 degrees celcius and the volts being used as close to 24volts with a 134Amp power feed.

I must admit i am bit impressed...

Vanakkuty

Subject: 306 GHz CPU

Oh come now. That's not a 306 GHz Pentium. It's a 306 GHz *Penitum*. They seem to have downgraded it to 3.06 GHz and replaced the inegrated audio and graphics with integrated kit. But it's still a Penitum. And I'm sure it comes with a wonderful spelling chceker.

Astro

Subject: Nviedia Class action lawsuit

i really dont see why so many people are complianing about lack of drivers for manufacturers.

so far im running my 7900GT without any issues using the nvidia drivers from there site (32bit under vista home basic)

this happens whenever a new OS is released and people will complain about lack of software/drivers.

give it time people. drivers will be released taht will work eventually, maybe they should blame microsoft for releasing vista after there own programmers said the OS wasnt ready yet and should start from scratch? or stick with XP, vista doesnt offer much over XP anyway

Regards
Adrian

Subject: 306GHz PC

Haven't got any better "news"?

Zinenko

Subject: 306GHz PC tips up

Hi Desky, the clockrate must be an funny mistake and an cheap and noname onboard graphic ..... must be normaly bad (old slow GPU and memory only from the system banks)! ;)

If a P4 531 3.0Ghz cost with cooler 75 Euro, a good 80GB SEAGATE 45 Euro, a good LGA775 MoBO starts by 56 Euro, a small PCI-E graphic card for Home Office an more costs 60 Euro, 512MB/533MHz RAM Kingston will cost 50 Euro, a normal case with power unit starts by 35 Euro and if you use the XP Home for 90 Euro or SUSE LINUX 10 for 45 Euro than you have a better system for 370 to 410 Euro! ;)

Better every body buy a good PCI, AGP or PCI-E graphic card and a good MoBo! :)

Cheap is sometimes very expensive! ;)

Frank-J. Bebber

Subject: intel chipsets

I have a burning question: ¿What happens if an OEM by error installs a 945G chipset on a 945P board? To me they look exactly the same except the laser marks are different. Would the board work the same or will it be slower due to the extra graphics baggage? Would the internal graphics interfere in any way with the external graphics card? What if the OEM mixed them?

Decaalv

Subject: 306GHz PC

What happend? Is the news so dry that the Inq is busy picking up typos across the net? If that's your game, you need not look any further than your own writers.

Anon

Subject: Avatars & Everywhere Girl

Hi, y'all,

I would like to report a multiple viewing of "the Girl" in a sort of Second Life (or perhaps it's schizophrenia. If this is really real, I think we should be told.

Yours, in more than one mind,

Terence

Subject: nvidia

Users start class action site to hammer Nvidia

Vista drivers fiasco irks geeks who feel duped

perhaps they should also sue over 1080i sli support ...that still dosent work

Andrew