Entries for cescotto

Italians, pre-order Samsung Omnia i900 and get a free Xbox 360 arcade! [Italians, pre-order Samsung Omnia i900 and get a free Xbox 360 arcade!]

cescotto — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:12:13 GMT

If you're Italian and love 15mm thick QVGA resolution phones with WM 6.1, 5 MPx camera, 3g + 7mbit HDSPA, high-capacity 1.5A batteries (but with only 300 hours standby time), Bluetooth 2.2, GPS, FM Radios, Optical mouse cursors, TV Out and pointless animated today screens you really can't miss this offer (Today is the last day to apply, 21th of July and you'll get the phone tomorrow 22th). I too was tempted by the offer but my disgust for the sluggish non-hardware accelerated Windows Mobile interfaces and the fear of bugged ROMs that Samsung could never update (Samsung phones don't even have an official ROM update tool so don't even hope for a Windows Mobile 7 upgrade next year unlike for HTC phones like the Diamond) are keeping me away from it.

in reply to Italians, pre-order Samsung Omnia i900 and get a free Xbox 360 arcade!

"Nokiaright" AKA Bad and Buggy DRM! [Rant Alert!] ["Nokiaright" AKA Bad and Buggy DRM! [Rant Alert!]]

cescotto — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 01:14:31 GMT

<RANT>
Nokia is so wonderful they decided they will enforce the copyright for all of my photos and it looks like they will enforce it so well that not even me will be able to copy them out of the device!

According to Nokia PC Suite I can't access the photos I made with my dying 7650 that I copied on my new 7710 using bluetooth. Same on the phone, I can't get them out of the phone memory and now I'm going to lose them because I'm going to sell the phone (and I'll need to format it before) :(

Thanks Nokia for reminding me why I'm switching to Windows Mobile phones and not looking back!
</RANT>

HTC Touch here I come!

P.S. if somebody is wondering why I'm posting it here I don't know either, probably I got infected by raymonditis ;)!

in reply to "Nokiaright" AKA Bad and Buggy DRM! [Rant Alert!]

Leaving for a few months. FUD storm alert! [Leaving for a few months. FUD storm alert!]

cescotto — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 09:25:51 GMT

I'm leaving for a few months because I'm moving to another city where I won't have internet access (since I will be there just for a few months I can't get an adsl connection because it requires a yearly subscription).

Unfortunately there is a group of people trying to push stories with deceiving titles/descriptions each day, they've been doing this at least 2-3 dozen of times, and without nobody debunking those FUD stories I'm almost completely sure they will all reach the front page so beware of the FUD storm because this time it's going to be huge.

See you all.

in reply to Leaving for a few months. FUD storm alert!

Kaspersky: "Vista less secure than XP" [Kaspersky: "Vista less secure than XP"]

cescotto — Mon, 19 Mar 2007 12:45:30 GMT

"Natalya Kaspersky, the company's chief executive, said that without UAC, Vista will be less secure than Windows XP SP2. "There's a question mark if Vista security has improved, or has really dropped down," she said to our sister site ZDNet UK at the CeBIT show in Hanover last week."

Yes, that's completely true! Viruses are breaching through the Vista hardened services using drilling tools, they're all getting around one of the most complete set of exploit prevention mechanisms ever implemented using magical powers!! Oh my god, it's the end!!!

I would have understood if she stated "Vista is less secure with UAC disabled" or "Vista is not a lot more secure than XP with UAC disabled" but saying that "Vista is less secure than XP with UAC disabled" is a plain lie.

I wouldn't have expected this from Kaspersky (the producers the best AV available for windows), but it looks like that all the other AV vendors they have to fall to this low lying tactics just to abuse their notoriety in the security field at their advantage: convincing people to stick to XP means more business for them. What a shame...

in reply to Kaspersky: "Vista less secure than XP"

Bad, bad Intel! [Bad, bad Intel!]

cescotto — Sun, 18 Mar 2007 10:07:23 GMT

Intel has done a great job this time. They decided not to release vista WDDM drivers for the graphics of their 91x chipsets and they are officially saying that they're not able to run aero... but guess what? Aero was working on the RCs and the Betas using registry hacks because the chipsets (that BTW are still being sold) are DX9-compatible and support SM 2.0...

Please, sign the petition at http://www.petitiononline.com/intel915/petition.html

in reply to Bad, bad Intel!

Vista 32bit - Driver for Conexant AC97 2 Channel Audio 20468-31 in the s400 ATI southbridge [Vista 32bit - Driver for Conexant AC97 2 Channel Audio 20468-31 in the s400 ATI southbridge]

cescotto — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 20:07:44 GMT

For all those that will ever need the Vista 32bit drivers in order to get the Conexant AC97 20468-31 audio device working on Vista just download these drivers, extract them and then force the install from the device manager:
What a noble intent, isn't it?

in reply to Vista 32bit - Driver for Conexant AC97 2 Channel Audio 20468-31 in the s400 ATI southbridge

No Battery On Vista :( [No Battery On Vista :(]

cescotto — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 10:57:36 GMT

Again with other vista problems!

Installed vista on a laptop, it doesn't detect the battery :(

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PageIndex=4&SiteID=1&PostID=1291894&PageID=0

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=598347&SiteID=17

this problem has already been reported on the microsoft forums but it looks like nobody from MS cares (the ACPI support on XP was detecting the battery correctly, why doesn't Vista do the same? the ACPI driver is all microsoft implementation).

I had the same problems XP came out however forcing the install of the "microsoft smart battery" device usually solved the problem, but on vista I get errors (error 1 and error 48) when I try.

Does somebody here knows if there's any solution? If not then I'd be forced to apply this nasty sticker to the laptop :(

in reply to No Battery On Vista :(

The "Works on My Machine" Certification Program [The "Works on My Machine" Certification Program]

cescotto — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 09:31:04 GMT

So, did somebody here already obtain this prestigious certification?

in reply to The "Works on My Machine" Certification Program

US government "ban on Vista" really a 6-month moratorium on upgrades [US government "ban on Vista" really a 6-month moratorium on upgrades]

cescotto — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:11:41 GMT

From http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2007/03/14/us-dot-puts-temporary-hold-on-vista

"With all budgets currently frozen at 2006 levels, there's not a lot of money available for OS upgrades. Even if additional government funds are made available for software upgrades, the DOT still appears to be concerned about compatibility issues with its software stack. In that regard, the government is acting like most enterprise IT departments, taking a cautious approach to deploying Vista."

so, all the stories on Vista bans were just spinned facts? Oh my, this can't be true, it never happened before!

in reply to US government "ban on Vista" really a 6-month moratorium on upgrades

3 vista problems (WMI/network center/audio breaking) solved! [3 vista problems (WMI/network center/audio breaking) solved!]

cescotto — Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:16:57 GMT

Somebody named "blueshot" found a solution for the WMI(catalyst, system properties not working)/netprofm(network center not working)/audio(user-mode drivers not working)/video playback (yes, all together) breaking on Vista.

http://forums.microsoft.com/TechNet/ShowPost.aspx?PageIndex=10&SiteID=17&PostID=1332941&PageID=8

I wonder if MS is going to release an hotfix to patch that annoying problem.

Now only WDS and ICS bugs are remaining I hope they'll go away with the SP1.

in reply to 3 vista problems (WMI/network center/audio breaking) solved!

The mysteries of the Vista's Explorer Status Bar [The mysteries of the Vista's Explorer Status Bar]

cescotto — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 18:23:39 GMT

Just refresh the folder with F5 or from the explorer menu and enjoy this brand new statusbar bug.

in reply to The mysteries of the Vista's Explorer Status Bar

Sony unveils PlayStation Home (MMORPG to compete with XBL? what?) [Sony unveils PlayStation Home (MMORPG to compete with XBL? what?)]

cescotto — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 06:32:20 GMT

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/03/07/playstation-home-the-free-virtual-world-of-playstation-3/

11 games canceled
plenty of exclusives lost (now the 360 has a lot more exclusives compared to the PS3)
20gb model being pull out of the market (probably they were losing too much on that model) forcing people to spend 599€ for the more expensive model

it was time for them to come out with at least one (1) good idea :P

in reply to Sony unveils PlayStation Home (MMORPG to compete with XBL? what?)

How cheaters push anti-MS stories to the digg frontpage. [How cheaters push anti-MS stories to the digg frontpage.]

cescotto — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 19:38:18 GMT

http://digg.com/tech_news/Huge_Chaos_at_Registerfly
http://digg.com/world_news/Daniel_Tessier_Laval_Police_Officer_killed_in_line_of_duty
http://digg.com/security/Sleek_Surf
http://digg.com/gadgets/Lion_Surf_Proxy_Service

same users digging those four stories: farooqaaa, bestquality, kanishka, trsaso, clajus, loonatic6, javagamerTR, tudurnas, navjotjsingh, Gursimran, champrock, dallasld.

I love you cheaters! And I love kevin rose&his beloved staff that do nothing to stop them except acting like nothing is happening (only to be caught off-guard by articles like this)

in reply to How cheaters push anti-MS stories to the digg frontpage.

The PayBack: Microsoft hits back in $1.5b Alcatel-Lucent MP3 lawsuit [The PayBack: Microsoft hits back in $1.5b Alcatel-Lucent MP3 lawsuit]

cescotto — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 03:50:43 GMT

http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/05/microsoft-hits-back-in-1-5b-alcatel-lucent-mp3-lawsuit/

Go Microsoft! And remember to split the Alcatel-Lucent winmodems with us niners if you win!

in reply to The PayBack: Microsoft hits back in $1.5b Alcatel-Lucent MP3 lawsuit

Judge reverses $1.5 Billion decision against Microsoft [Judge reverses $1.5 Billion decision against Microsoft]

cescotto — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 05:01:42 GMT

http://www.techspot.com/news/24525-judge-reverses-15-billion-decision-against-microsoft.html

Alcatel-Lucent will have to sell a lot of winmodems in order to pay the legal costs :(

in reply to Judge reverses $1.5 Billion decision against Microsoft

Zune hacked to support DivX! [Zune hacked to support DivX!]

cescotto — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 12:46:41 GMT

http://www.engadget.com/2007/03/01/zune-hacked-for-divx-support-sorta/

So, Zune Software can transcode and sync any kind of video file without problems and MS restricted even that feature while that would have been a real killer app? Great :(

in reply to Zune hacked to support DivX!

David Pogue finally writes something positive about Vista? [David Pogue finally writes something positive about Vista?]

cescotto — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 06:04:42 GMT

http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/telling-your-computer-what-to-do/

this can't be!!!

in reply to David Pogue finally writes something positive about Vista?

I bought votes on digg [I bought votes on digg]

cescotto — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 12:05:17 GMT

No, not me... but instead a Wired reporter:

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/internet/0,72832-0.html

in reply to I bought votes on digg

Why is Vista so fragile? [Why is Vista so fragile?]

cescotto — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 06:33:22 GMT

Could it really be possible that with a single crash on a machine with a damned jmicron controller (JMicron RTM drivers are completely broken):
- Windows Update database got corrupted (windows update errors)
- WMI repository database got corrupted (no access to any of the WMI classes)
- Windows Desktop search database got corrupted (continuous high CPU usage while (and after) searching)

and NONE of those applications found out that their databases were corrupted until I stopped their services, deleted their databases and then restarted them?

Also the Driver Database got corrupted and I couldn't install any new hardware until I copied all the c:\windows\inf\ files somewhere else and pointed the driver wizard there. I had to delete the INF files cache to get it working again.

Isn't there any integrity check in those services?

in reply to Why is Vista so fragile?

Finally the first non-FUD story about the DRM in Vista on Digg [success!] [Finally the first non-FUD story about the DRM in Vista on Digg [success!]]

cescotto — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 03:06:24 GMT

http://www.digg.com/microsoft/Does_DRM_really_limit_Vista

it has reached the frontpage!!

Time for a party?

in reply to Finally the first non-FUD story about the DRM in Vista on Digg [success!]

DIGG added a Microsoft section!!!! [DIGG added a Microsoft section!!!!]

cescotto — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 02:12:36 GMT

http://www.digg.com/microsoft

What are you waiting for? Subscribe to this amazing new section for 24/7 microsoft bashing :D

in reply to DIGG added a Microsoft section!!!!

Vista doesn't detect drivers... again! [Vista doesn't detect drivers... again!]

cescotto — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 02:06:13 GMT

I'm still having again (for the 3° time) a problem with Vista not detecting drivers unless I copy the c:\windows\inf folder somewhere else and have vista pick the drivers from there.

I'm almost completely sure the drivers database got corrupted, but does somebody here happens to know where it is and if there's a way to reset it?

BTW I was not the only one with this issue, see http://ooxmlhoaxes.blogspot.com/2007/02/ooxml-hoax-5-microsoft-could-have.html

in reply to Office Open XML hoax: Microsoft could have participated in ODF

Interfacing with the Vista defrag. [Interfacing with the Vista defrag.]

cescotto — Sat, 24 Feb 2007 01:13:30 GMT

Does somebody here knows if there any way to interface an application with the Vista defrag utility to get the progress status, the current files being defragmented, etc?

BTW Yes, I already tried the -v switch, but it doesn't print anything useful.

in reply to Interfacing with the Vista defrag.