Channel 9 - Discussions by Xaero_Vincent

Coffeehouse - I just blew my 360! :-)

Xaero_Vincent — Thu, 29 May 2008 15:45:20 GMT

Meh... this is why I have a PS3.

The Xbox 360 is somewhat more powerful but only because it has twice the RAM and a better memory bus and controller architecture that achieves higher data throughput.

The 360 also has a slightly better GPU as well. The PS3's graphics controller is just below a GeForce 7800.

Still, the graphics capability of the PS3 is virtually identical to the Xbox 360 with only a marginal drop in FPS on the PS3.

While the PS3 is slightly less powerful and doesn't have Halo 3, it does play BluRay movies, have a very high reliability record, a free Interweb browser, free online multiplayer service, and of course is a completely unlocked system (minus the GPU).

The Sandbox - Piggybank

Xaero_Vincent — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 18:18:13 GMT

A functional USA Dollar version of Jamie's Piggybank mockup application.

A very simple, graphical personal finance application.

Features for v1.0:

* Upto six individual piggybank items
* Add money to checking account
* Creation of a checking account
* Graphical money manuplation
* Utilizes DirectX 7 for sprites
* Open, Save, Close options
* DES password encryption

Tentative feature set for the next release, v2.0:

* Add support for U.S cent change ((Maybe))
* Utilize DirectX 9 for sprites in next release
* Add U.S.D currency denominations sprites
* Implement more piggybank item features

Future release (v3.0 and beyond):

* Support other currencies (Euro, Peso, Yen, etc.) ?

License: This software is released under Public Domain with a disclaimer.

Bugs: There is a window re-drawing issue. When this issue occurs, just drag the window elsewhere on the screen or minimize then restore the window to properly re-paint the background image. I hope to have the re-painting problem largely diminished by the next release.

Download here or from 4shared link.

http://www.4shared.com/file/41572747/c4644431/Piggybank.html

Coffeehouse - MS DOS 6.22 Installation Disks

Xaero_Vincent — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 11:31:49 GMT

verilizerz wrote:

Hi..
can anybody help me??
my dos disk missing.. ive been searching for whole day to find my dos file .. where can i get it?? already dl from bootdisk.com but it just the bootdisk.. i want dos 6.22 disk.. the setup one.. please help me.. this is my email.. verilizerz@gmail.com.. until now, i only got boot disk.. not the (3) installer disk.. pleasee..

1) 21st Century???

Wasn't 6.22 the DOS bundled with Windows 3.1?

2) It took me 10 seconds to find a tracker with a MSDOS 6.22 torrent on Google. If your really that desperate there are ways, even if they arent legal.

Hopefully you wont try to install it because suddenly your 100+ GB HDD is now a 2 GB drive under the Fat 16 filesystem.

Coffeehouse - Apache and IIS

Xaero_Vincent — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 17:51:36 GMT

drhowarddrfine wrote:

Don't confuse money changing hands with "trust". Even with large corporations buying Microsoft stuff, which tend to use "safe" technology (Nobody got fired for buying IBM), it's interesting to note that MS still only gets half that market and still only 22% share overall. And we all know how aggressive MS can be.

I don't recall if it was NetCraft or not but the numbers are also skewed by just three organizations: Facebook, MySpace and one other (I forgot). Removing those three companies greatly diminishes IIS usage.

Yes, MySpace is a huge contributor to IIS's marketshare. I think it serves all the tens of millions of profile web pages.

Anyway, let this thread die... its only four years old.

Coffeehouse - Anybody running Vista on Leopard Macbook Pro?

Xaero_Vincent — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 05:39:57 GMT

Ray6 wrote:
MS has also relaxed the licensing rules for installing Vista under virtualisation, so it should be much cheaper to get it up and running on your Mac (this was an excellent move on MS's part by the way).

Yes, I saw this. Definitely the right move for everyone running different platforms but still interested in virtualization.

Microsoft also aquired a company that specializes in providing 3D capabilities for VM and TS. Everything we thought we knew about graphics over RDP was wrong.

So expect full, hardware accelerated Direct3D graphics over terminal services and 3D accelerated virtualized video drivers to become mainstream in MS VM products and it's competitors.

I cannot wait until these technologies appear in *nix TS and VM solutions. It will literally change everything for users of alternative platforms.

Coffeehouse - KDE 4.1 Release Schedule

Xaero_Vincent — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:07:28 GMT

Yeah, I wont be trying KDE until 4.1 at least.

I believe the Windows port is just the libraries for supporting KDE applications on Windows, while the Mac OS X and OpenSolaris port are the full-environment?

I think you can get a full KDE experience on Windows but you have to deal with the Win32 Xserver/Cygwin mumbo jumbo.

Coffeehouse - Windows 7 Ideas

Xaero_Vincent — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 05:45:10 GMT

Why do you guys assume Microsoft will alter the UI in 7?

Vista already introduces a different UI concept from it's predecessors.

Microsoft can't just go and radically alter the interface every release. End-users, especially buisnesses, expect conformity and a common interface with a minimal learning curve.

Coffeehouse - must have Work apps...

Xaero_Vincent — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 03:59:10 GMT

Paint.NET looks nice and it's also being ported over to Mono, which is cool news for me.

But if you have Photoshop, just use that and that... it works everywhere too.

Coffeehouse - must have Work apps...

Xaero_Vincent — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 03:56:02 GMT

Photoshop, Firefox, OpenOffice, Super Tux Kart.

I'll probably also use Microsoft Visual Web Developer and Dreamweaver when I begin working on my personal web site. I'll probably have to pull out some of my books because I forgot some things.

The Sandbox - Seamless Windows Terminal Server for Linux

Xaero_Vincent — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:25:30 GMT

Update #5: Re-built RPMs against the latest CVS repository, added Greek keymap, and enabled support for smartcards.

The Sandbox - Seamless Windows Terminal Server for Linux

Xaero_Vincent — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 20:24:48 GMT

Update #1: Greatly improved the "Readme" document.

Update #2: Re-built RPMs against latest CVS repository.

This update fixes a potential connection issue with Windows Vista SP1 terminal servers and changes a datatype that could cause issues on non-x86 architectures.

Update #3: Added a note in the readme that clarifies when to click the SeamlessRDP shortcut and re-worded a few other paragraphs. The notice is only applicable to Vista terminal servers.

Update #4: Added some Windows XP-specific notes in the readme document.

Update #5: Re-built RPMs against the latest CVS repository, added Greek keymap, and enabled support for smartcards.

Download update here.

Coffeehouse - Another nail in the .NET coffin

Xaero_Vincent — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 23:28:52 GMT

DigitalDud wrote:
It's nice to see the Linux guys catching up with what Windows and Mac development environments have had for 15 years.

Since when was QT a Linux-only API? Notice how its for Windows and OS X too.

Probably the biggest problem with Linux and FOSS UNIXs is that they have nothing to claim for themselves.

That is the side-effect of being both free, open source and having the least marketshare.

Coffeehouse - ATI catalyst 8.1 - introducing multiwhat?

Xaero_Vincent — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:09:43 GMT

SlackmasterK wrote:

I bet all those monitors are EnergyStar compliant too, right?

Oh and the two other pieces of interest... two Cheez-It boxes? :O

The Sandbox - Seamless Windows Terminal Server for Linux

Xaero_Vincent — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:35:00 GMT

XP or older version users:

If you cannot log off the terminal server because the taskbar and start menu is missing, create a shortcut on Linux and add this target command:

rdesktop -l "logoff"

This will launch the logoff.exe in Windows, which will log you off.

Just click the shortcut whenever you want to log off.

If you want a taskbar to appear create a shortcut with this:

rdesktop -l "explorer"

The Sandbox - Seamless Windows Terminal Server for Linux

Xaero_Vincent — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:12:37 GMT

The Sandbox - Seamless Windows Terminal Server for Linux

Xaero_Vincent — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:12:15 GMT

The Sandbox - Seamless Windows Terminal Server for Linux

Xaero_Vincent — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 23:12:06 GMT

The Sandbox - Seamless Windows Terminal Server for Linux

Xaero_Vincent — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 20:32:13 GMT

Here is an early Christmas gift to our fellow niners with Windows and Linux boxes, who are looking for an easy way to access their Windows applications and remote files when Wine-type solutions fall flat.

I've packaged together a set of software components that provides a seamless terminal solution to Fedora Linux users with access to capable Windows machines or virtual machines on the local system.

"Seamless" refers to the interaction of individual programs in their own, seperate windows and launching them from shortcut icons on the Linux desktop. This is contrast to a normal remote desktop sessions, where the full desktop is presented in a single window.

I've made RPMs for an enhanced, patched CVS version of rdesktop (RDP client), included Microsoft's Elevate Power Toy for Vista, Fontis IT's enhanced SeamlessRDP server and my small tray application and readme.

Be sure to check the Readme file.

Requirements
==========

* Access to a computer with a version of Windows that encompasses the server component of terminal services: Windows NT 4.0 TS, Windows 2000, Windows XP Professional, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista Buisness, Ultimate, and Enterprise. Windows Server 2008 terminal servers are currently not supported.

(Note): If local or remote access to a Windows machine is not possible, a virtual machine with host networking configured and a Windows guest operating system can be used in place of a physical system. The seamless terminal server should function the same in a virtualized environment. This document does not describe how to configure a virtual machine.

* At least one computer installed with Fedora Linux. Although this software is capable of running on numerous distributions and other Unix-like operating systems this particular package has only been tested with 32-bit versions of Fedora and Windows. Users of other distributions and operating systems may attempt to covert the RPM packages to the native package format of their distribution or operating system with tools like Alien.

(Note): Re-compiling the SRPM and SeamlessRDP components are necessary for 64-bit machines with 64-bit operating systems.

* Any sort of network or Internet connection for both the server and client. A simple 56K modem connection would be sufficient. Be aware that internal dial-up Winmodem support under Linux is poor at best; therefore, for most users, options are limited to a hardware modem, wired Ethernet or wireless connectivity. The terminal server system may be accessed from a local or wide area network or via the Internet.

Enjoy.

Update: Download from the 4shared link instead. It appears I reached my upload limit for this contribution on here.

http://www.4shared.com/file/35396677/f60a9ae4/sts.html

Coffeehouse - Vista SP1 - My Windows is now an "Evaluation Copy' WTF

Xaero_Vincent — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 01:51:33 GMT

I cannot wait for SP1.

Faster local and remote file copy operations is something I've long needed from from Vista. Its presently slower than a turtle climbing a steep grade.

The new RDP compression algorithm sounds sweet too... upto 50% less bandwidth requirements? That will be totally swell for my Terminal Server.

Coffeehouse - Why doesn't Microsoft buy SCO?

Xaero_Vincent — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 21:28:43 GMT

evildictaitor wrote:

And that's why Linux doesn't have a big market-share, right there.

If Linux developers started to realise that actually users having a good experience is much more important than silly long-term grudges they might hold, or stop bickering about whether Linux ought to even allow programs not released under the GPL, they might actually get some users.

They should get their act together and put in a single line at the top of their kernel:

if(VPC) then { don't use 24-bit color }

And until they do, normal users who just want their computer to work and who might want to try out that new and fangled "Linux thing" will be absolutely sure to not touch it if it doesn't just work.

The only way this would be true is if the Xorg drivers for whatever video card Virtual PC virtualizes only supported up to 24 bit video mode.

That is a possible scenerio but it doesn't mean that Xorg fails to support 32 bits per pixel for other cards and drivers.

> grep -G pixmap /var/log/Xorg.0.log

(==) Depth 24 pixmap format is 32 bpp

> xdpyinfo | grep '32'

bitmap unit, bit order, padding:    32, LSBFirst, 32
    depth 1, bits_per_pixel 1, scanline_pad 32
    depth 4, bits_per_pixel 8, scanline_pad 32
    depth 8, bits_per_pixel 8, scanline_pad 32
    depth 15, bits_per_pixel 16, scanline_pad 32
    depth 16, bits_per_pixel 16, scanline_pad 32
    depth 24, bits_per_pixel 32, scanline_pad 32
    depth 32, bits_per_pixel 32, scanline_pad 32
depths (7):    24, 1, 4, 8, 15, 16, 32
    visual id:    0x32
    depth:    32 planes

> info xorg.conf | grep -B 10 -C 4 "Most hardware"

       Depth depth
              This entry specifies what colour depth the Display subsection is
              to be used for. This entry is usually specified, but it may be
              omitted to create a match-all Display subsection or when wishing
              to match only against the FbBpp parameter. The range of depth
              values that are allowed depends on the driver.   Most drivers
              support 8, 15, 16 and 24. Some also support 1 and/or 4, and
              some may support other values (like 30). Note: depth means the
              number of bits in a pixel that are actually used to determine
              the pixel colour. 32 is not a valid depth value. Most hardware
              that uses 32 bits per pixel only uses 24 of them to hold the
              colour information, which means that the colour depth is 24, not
              32.

Coffeehouse - Why doesn't Microsoft buy SCO?

Xaero_Vincent — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 03:52:14 GMT

AndyC wrote:

You're aware that it predates VMWare, right?

But, regardless of virtualisation or not, it's really, really dumb of Linux to still be defaulting to a display mode that is incredibly slow on most graphics cards (even those of the Win 95 era). That just makes no sense at all.

It doesn't.

As long as the video card and driver support 32 bit video mode, Xserver supports 24 bit color with the extra byte to align the color channels to 4 byte increments in memory, which is more efficent and therefore faster.

Xserver refers both 24 and 32 bit as 24 bit color depth.

The "xdpyinfo" command provides some information about the color depths supported by Xserver and your video card.

Coffeehouse - Help! Remote Desktop

Xaero_Vincent — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 07:08:22 GMT

Is disabling DHCP required for remote access outside a LAN a requirement for VNC, SSH, etc as well?

If so... why? DHCP assigns my IP but it seems like the IP remains static. So if it remained static... shouldn't remote desktop still work?

I've never tried remote access outside my LAN before.

Coffeehouse - Graphics help wanted

Xaero_Vincent — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 06:23:21 GMT

16x16 ? As in 16 pixels?

Thats even small for a tray icon.

I tried cropping it with static width/height measurements but photoshop just downsampled and chopped away so much image data that it and looks pretty bad.

Coffeehouse - Why doesn't Microsoft buy SCO?

Xaero_Vincent — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 06:14:08 GMT

Shining Arcanine wrote:

The cursor in Ubuntu 7.04 does not work in Virtual PC. Ubuntu 6.10 does not have that problem. It has the 24-bit color issue, but that can easily be worked around. The mouse problem in 7.04 cannot be worked around.

As for why Virtual PC, it is free, it supports hardware virtualization and it is readily avaliable. I would really like to use a Virtual Machine that has all of that with SMP support as well.

According to Wikipedia, Virtual PC 2007 doesn't support SMP and uses regular virtualization. Xen and VMWare support SMP, paravirtualization and/or hardware virtualization (CPU kind). I also read that VMWare supports multi-monitors and experimental Direct3D 8 hardware acceleration.

I personally use Virtualbox and it supports Linux distros just fine with full 24 bit color and a seamless mouse (with guest additons). Virtualbox has a neat RDP server feature, where you can remotely access your virtual machine via terminal services client.

The mouse issue is at least solvable in Ubuntu 7.10 and other distributions using "-- i8042.noloop".

Coffeehouse - Help!

Xaero_Vincent — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 18:02:14 GMT

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:

Reinstall Windows.

Wow... great expert advice.