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Hardware - Langa Letter: How To Safely Add Or Replace A Hard Drive


Posted by: soxrocker on March 15, 2006 7:36 AM
...Very good tutorial from Fred Langa...

Hard drives fill up and eventually die: It's a fact of PC life. And while it's easy to add a new, empty drive to a PC as an adjunct to an existing, in-use drive, that's sometimes not really what you want. What's better is to add a new, fast, capacious drive and move your data, intact, to it. This way you can pick up more or less where you left off, and you don't have to rebuild or reinstall the operating system (unless you want to). If you keep the old, high-mileage drive in the system at all, it's just as extra space--not as the main drive.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=181502411

By Fred Langa
InformationWeek

Mar 13, 2006 12:00 AM

Fred LangaHard drives fill up and eventually die: It's a fact of PC life. And while it's easy to add a new, empty drive to a PC as an adjunct to an existing, in-use drive, that's sometimes not really what you want. What's better is to add a new, fast, capacious drive and move your data, intact, to it. This way you can pick up more or less where you left off, and you don't have to rebuild or reinstall the operating system (unless you want to). If you keep the old, high-mileage drive in the system at all, it's just as extra space--not as the main drive.

Because this is somewhat harder than just tossing a new drive in the PC, it's something many drive vendors gloss over, or acknowledge only with anemic tools that may or may not actually do the job.

But if you don't mind just a little geekiness--just a little, honest!--there are several allied tips and tricks that can give you enormous flexibility in adding or replacing a drive in a system. It's fast, fairly easy, and can save you many headaches in trying to retain as much of your original setup as possible. That's what we'll be covering today.

The information in this article stands on its own, but it also fits into a wider context. You can read it as-is, or think of it as "Part Two" of a three-part article. Please let me explain: Several weeks ago, I received a challenge from a reader who didn't believe me when I said in print that it was possible to put together a brand-new terabyte (1,000 Gbyte) file server for around $500. Well, you can, and I did. The example system I put together now resides on the far side of my office, offering up a thousand gigabytes--that's a lot of disk space!--as network storage on my office LAN.

The heart of my terabyte server is a modest array of high-capacity drives. In assembling that system, I realized that because large, single hard drives are more or less standard in many new PCs, most users have never had to deal with the details of drive installation, initialization, and configuration, either for adding multiple drives to a system or for swapping drives. Both these processes raise questions as to the safest and best ways to set things up, as well as to avoid data loss, especially if you're moving a current PC's setup and files to a new drive.

In the previous column in this space, "Another Hidden Gem: The Windows Disk Management Tool," we looked at the most widely applicable part of the process: a little-known tool built into Windows for creating, formatting, or deleting partitions and drives; changing drive letter assignments and paths; and so on.

Today we'll look at a slightly nonstandard way of physically adding a drive to an existing, in-use system--a way I find much easier than the methods recommended by some drive manufacturers.

Then in an upcoming column, we'll take a close look at that from-scratch $500 terabyte server, including complete lists of where I got the parts and for how much.

Whether you're looking to add new, inexpensive, massive file storage capacity; or want to add or swap a drive in an existing system; or just want to learn more about a powerful tool built into Windows that most users have never even heard of, these three columns--individually or together--have something very interesting for you. Let's get started!

Live-Swapping Or Upgrading A Drive
We'll spend most of our time in this column discussing live-swapping or upgrading a drive because it's more complex than simply adding a second drive to a system and thus deserves more attention. Although we'll come back to the simpler case of adding a second drive, by discussing the more complex process in some detail first, we'll automatically cover essential information that will also apply to the simpler procedure later.

Similarly, we'll focus on tasks involving classic IDE (integrated drive electronics)-type drives and cables using standard ATA connections. ATA stands for "Advanced Technology Attachment," where "Advanced Technology" in turn refers to the IBM AT PC, introduced in 1984. Believe it or not, and despite its age, ATA is still the most common kind of drive attachment technology in use today.

The concepts and principles are very similar for newer SATA drives, but the cables and connectors are different. (SATA means "Serial ATA" or "Serial Advanced Technology Attachment." For lots more information, see this.)

Some other basics: Most PCs have two "channels" for drive communication: a primary and a secondary. Furthermore, in a standard PC setup, each channel can support two drives. Historically, they've been called the "master" and "slave," so a PC with four drives would have a primary master, a primary slave, a secondary master, and a secondary slave.

I wish I were making this up, but some vendors have been accused of cultural insensitivity in the use of this nomenclature and so have started calling the drives "primary" and "secondary" as well, leading to situations where you may have a primary primary, a primary secondary, a secondary primary, and a secondary secondary. While I applaud linguistic sensitivity, this naming convention is just plain silly and confusing, so we'll use the simpler, clearer "master" and "slave" terminology just for what it is, with no deeper context implied and no offense intended to anyone.

A PC knows which drive is which by three means. First, the primary and secondary channels are separate. Each has its own cable and plugs into the motherboard via a separate socket.

Incidentally (but importantly), each drive channel may end up working at the speed of the slowest device on that channel. Thus it's usually better to group like devices together. For example, CD/DVDs are much slower than hard drives, so in a system with a mix of hard drives and CD/DVD drives, it makes sense to put the hard drive(s) on one channel and the CD drive(s) on the other. This is actually one of the reasons why PCs have separate channels in the first place--so devices with very different speeds can be grouped where they won't get in each other's way.
By convention, each drive cable has three connectors: one for the motherboard, and two for the drives. The two drive connectors are usually fairly close together on one end of the cable, so even if the cable has no labeling whatsoever, you can still tell which end is which. (The connector on one end of the cable that's more or less by itself is the one that plugs into the motherboard. The other two connectors, more or less together on the other end of the cable, are for the drives.)

Also by convention, the connector at the end of the cable farthest from the motherboard is for the master drive. The other connector, near the master drive's end of the cable, is for the slave drive. In systems with only one hard drive, only the master connection is used; the slave connector can be left unattached to anything.

In better-quality systems, the connections are also color-coded to make the setup even more obvious. As shown in Photo One, the blue connector plugs into the motherboard, the black connector (on the other end of the cable) plugs into the master drive, and the gray connector (midway in the cable) plugs into the slave drive. What's more, some cables even print text labels on or near the connectors, making the connection order just about foolproof. This, too, is shown in Photo One.

In newer PCs, the connectors themselves also are "keyed," meaning they're shaped so that they only fit into sockets the right way. If you try to plug a connector in the wrong way, it just won't fit.
Although this is increasingly rare, in some older systems (older cables and/or older drives) there's no physical keying to prevent plugging things in the wrong way. These systems rely on color-coding of the cable itself for proper orientation. One side of the cable is printed with a red stripe as shown in Photo Three.


Even on older cables, the red stripe makes it easy to get things plugged in correctly. See the text for details.
Photo Three
Even on older cables, the red stripe makes it easy to get things plugged in correctly. See the text for details.

(click image for larger view)

This red stripe aligns with the side of the drive connector labeled "Pin 1," usually printed or embossed on the drive itself. But again note that this is a fall-back option; most current drives and cables use keyed connectors that can only plug in the correct way. The red-stripe/Pin 1 orientation method is only needed in cases where the drives or connectors aren't keyed.

Like many cables of current manufacture, our example cable (shown in all three photos above) actually uses all these conventions together--physical layout, color coding, text labels, connector keying, and red-stripe/Pin 1 identification--to make proper connection as blindingly obvious as possible. You'd almost have to be asleep not to be able to figure out how this cable plugs in and to what!

Page 3: Don't Skip The Jump

Don't Skip The Jump
OK, I'll admit it: This is probably the geekiest part of this discussion. It's not hard or complicated, though--just odd, mostly because of little plastic gizmos called "jumpers."

You see, some drives in some systems can determine whether they're the master or slave purely by their position on the cable. This is called "cable select." Drives of this sort come from the factory set up for cable-select operation, and you can just plug ‘em in and they'll work.

But not all drives or all systems are set up for cable-select operation, so drives also come with a way to make them act as a master or a slave, no matter what. This is accomplished via jumpers, which you can think of as tiny switches on the back of a drive. The jumper is actually a small piece of plastic that's lined with metal and placed over two electrical pins to complete a circuit. Depending on which pins the jumper is placed over, the drive's circuitry is then set up to act as master, slave, or cable select. Yes, it's primitive. Yes, it's kind of silly to have to fool with tiny little pieces of plastic. And yes, few will mourn the passing of this 25-plus-year-old method of hardware configuration. But it's not hard, and it's totally bulletproof--which is one reason why it has hung on for so long.

Photo Four shows the back of a typical IDE drive. The socket for the data plug is on the right; the four-pin power socket is to the left. The eight pins in the center of the photo are the configuration pins. A black plastic jumper is mounted over the vertical pair of pins farthest on the right.


Photo Four
A typical IDE drive. The data socket is on the right; the power socket is to the left. The eight pins in the center of the photo are the configuration pins. A black plastic jumper is mounted over the vertical pair of pins farthest on the right.

(click image for larger view)
A typical IDE drive. The data socket is on the right; the power socket is to the left. The eight pins in the center of the photo are the configuration pins. A black plastic jumper is mounted over the vertical pair of pins farthest on the right.

Photo Five zooms in a little closer. The red arrow points to the black plastic jumper. The yellow arrow points to the letters "MA" embossed in the plastic above the jumper. This is the setting for the drive to be a master. Note the letters "SL" and CS" to the left of the master setting. These are for the slave- and cable-select positions, respectively.
Although jumper positions are somewhat standardized, it's always a good idea to look for MA, SL, and CS labels, or something like that, on the actual drive to make sure you're setting the jumpers correctly. In some drives, the jumper settings are printed on the top of the drive housing, as shown in Photo Six.
The pictograph directly under "Jumper Pin Setting" is a schematic to orient you correctly to the location of the jumpers on the back of the drive--hold the drive so that it's oriented toward you the same way as the schematic shows, and then you can place the jumpers as needed and as shown in the other schematics. For example, if you wanted to set this drive as a master, you'd refer to the items circled in red in Photo Seven--that is, the "General Pin Setting" for the "Master" drive.

f a drive lacks any jumper-setting information on it, you can visit the vendor's Web site to look up the jumper positions.

Photo Eight shows a jumper removed. Persons with slender fingers or longish fingernails can just grab a jumper and pull it off. I usually have to resort to tweezers or needle-nosed pliers. In any case, jumpers pull straight off without much force and similarly slide back on the same way.

The reason for going through all this jumper business is that it's the most certain way to set drive priority; it works in all standard IDE/ATA systems, whether they're cable-select-capable or not. Because it eliminates a variable, I prefer to set my drives this way, by manually setting the jumpers. Then I know whether the drive will act as master or slave, with no guesswork or uncertainty.

OK, enough theory--we're almost ready to see how this plays out in real life. But note that most new drives come with installation instructions that are worth reading. They include fundamental information (such as avoiding static electric discharges) that we won't repeat here. If you're new to PC hardware, you might want to follow the manufacturer's instructions exactly, at least the first time, so you'll fully understand the basic process before you use the alternate method I employ. And of course, when in doubt, default back to the manufacturer's instructions, as they're designed to keep your new drive's warranty in effect.

From Theory To Practice
My system had a 120 Gbyte drive that was getting crowded. It held live copies of every version of Windows all the way back to Windows 3.0, for example, as well as a dozen or so different flavors of Linux. Then there were the digital photos and videos, the reams of back copies from 25 years of tech writing, and the list goes on and on. (See this and this for more information.) So I bought a new 400 Gbyte hard drive.

The system involved is my main, daily-use PC, and it's also the one I'd spent a lot of time on getting the cooling system as quiet and efficient as possible, as detailed in the articles here. I didn't want to add a second drive per se because of the extra noise and heat it would produce.

Rather, I wanted to replace the existing 120 Gbyte unit with the 400 Gbyte unit, but in as simple and direct a way as possible. (Yes, I had all the essential data backed up--and most of the nonessential data, too--but restoring that much data from CDs and DVDs would have been a laborious process.)

Here's what I ended up doing:

With the PC fully backed up and turned off, I placed it on the floor and removed the side panel. I then set the side panel across the open case to create a clean, flat work area. I used a piece of scrap cardboard to provide a cushioning and insulating layer, and then removed the 120 Gbyte drive (I'll call it the "old" drive from here on in) and placed it gently on the cardboard, as shown in Photo Nine.

The drive was still part of the PC; the data cable and power cable were still in place. But the drive was no longer bolted inside the case. Instead, it was out in the open, accessible and easier to work on.

Photo Ten gets closer. Instead of being flat, the cable on this drive was made round for ease of routing and to enhance airflow inside the PC case. But electrically, it's exactly the same as a conventional flat cable. The connectors are also the same: They're keyed, color-coded, and text-labeled in exactly the same way as the flat cable we saw in earlier photos.

Because my PC had only one drive installed, only the master drive position was in use, and the old drive's jumper was set to "master." I placed the 400 Gbyte drive--which we'll call the "new" drive from here on in--next to the old one, as shown in Photo Eleven.

I then removed its packaging, set the new drive's jumper to "slave," plugged the cable's slave connector to the drive, and attached a power connector, as shown in Photo Twelve.

I then plugged the PC back in and rebooted to make sure the connections were good. Indeed they were, as a quick check of the system BIOS showed. (See Photo Thirteen.)

Both drives appeared in the BIOS listing. So far, so good.

Page 5: Moving Data To The New Drive and What If Something's Left Behind?


Moving Data To The New Drive
The new drive was now electrically part of the system, but was raw, unformatted, and unusable. I rebooted and this time let the system start Windows. (The PC booted off the master drive, which was still the old 120 Gbyte unit.) I then used the Windows Drive Management tool to create and format partitions on the new drive as I wished. (For a complete discussion and illustrated how-to of this process, see "Another Hidden Gem: The Windows Disk Management Tool.") Alternatively, I could have used any partitioning tool, and it wouldn't have mattered.

Once the new drive was ready to hold data, I used Windows' normal copy operations to populate the new drive with data from the old for everything except the C:, or system, partition. In other words, I copied data from every partition higher than C: to its new home on the new drive.

Although these copy operations involved a huge amount of data, it all happened at drive-to-drive speeds via the system bus and thus went very, very fast--much faster than a network or USB copy would have taken, and enormously faster than restoring from CD or DVD.

Moving The Operating System To The New Drive
There are several ways to move the operating system to a new drive. But because I'm a fan of drive imaging, my preferred method for setting up the operating system on a new drive is this:

Still running the operating system on the old drive, I enter the Device Manager and uninstall the current entries under "Disk Drives." This in effect makes Windows "forget" what drives it's currently using. I then reboot to my disk imaging tool and create an image of the "no disks configured" version of Windows residing on the old drive. I then restore this image onto what will become the C: partition on the new drive. This whole process is measured in minutes, not hours, and gets a complete clone of the old Windows set up onto the new drive, with all the software and user files intact and ready to pick up from where they left off.

The last step is a bit of hardware footwork. I change the jumpers on the drives so that the new drive is the master and the old drive is the slave. I then reverse the cable positions so that the new drive is connected in the master position and the old drive is in the slave position. Next I unplug the old drive's power connector so that when I restart, only the new drive will spin up. This setup is shown in Photo Fourteen.

When I reboot, the PC wakes up with no knowledge of the old drive because it boots from the cloned copy of Windows on the new drive. The operating system then wakes up, detects the new drive, and goes about its business. (In my case, this drive swap didn't even trigger a reactivation of the installed Windows.) If things have gone well, the new operating system will be happy, and all your data will now be on the new drive. If the drive letter assignments aren't what you want, no problem: Use the Windows Disk Management tool to adjust the setup as you wish.

If or when all is well, you can then shut down the PC, physically remove the old drive, bolt the new drive in place, and put the PC case together. You're done, simple as that.

What If Something's Left Behind?
If you boot to the new drive, but discover that you still need something from the old drive, no problem. Just turn the PC off, reconnect the old drive's power plug and reboot (as shown in Photo Fifteen). The system will boot with the new drive as the master and the old drive as the slave. You'll be running the operating system off the new drive, but you'll have fast access to all your original files back on the old drive--even the old system files on what used to be the C: drive.

This is, in fact, how you can set up a two-drive system, moving the operating system and your main files to a new drive while still having the old drive in the PC. As you gain confidence in the new setup, you can eventually delete files from the old drive or even reformat it entirely to open up its space to reuse.

Page 6: Alternatives And Solving Problems and Ready For The Next Step?

Alternatives And Solving Problems
OK, sometimes things go awry--perhaps your imaging didn't work as expected, or perhaps you just wanted to start afresh, with a from-scratch, lean new setup. You can still use the same general ideas shown above, up to and through the "Moving Data To The New Drive" step. What happens next depends on how much of your old setup you want to retain.

One alternative is, before you deactivate the old setup, run the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard and use the option it offers to collect all your old Windows files and settings into a single file for later use. You can store this file anywhere convenient, either on the old or new drive.

Next make the new drive the master and reboot to it, then set up a fresh install of Windows there. When done, run the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard again, but this time from the new setup. When given the choice, tell it you've already gathered the old files and settings in a file and point the Wizard to the file you previously created. The new Windows will digest the information from the old setup, adding the files and settings to itself on the new drive.

If you want the old files but not necessarily the old settings, it's even easier. Skip the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard on both the old and new setup. When you've installed Windows afresh on the new drive, use the technique shown in "What If Something's Left Behind?" to gain access to your original setup and manually copy whatever files you want from the old setup to the new.

This technique--having both drives easily accessible and able to be swapped back and forth as master or slave, singly or in combination--is one I find much easier in the long run than the usual manufacturer's directions, which involve fully mounting the new drive before it's ever activated. Once mounted in a drive bay, it's usually much harder to get at jumpers and to get cables lined up and connected easily, which slows or limits you if you need to roll back a step, or if you need to easily boot from either drive. But again, if you're new to PC hardware, you might want to follow the manufacturer's instructions exactly, at least the first time, so that you'll fully understand the basic process before you use the alternate method I employ. And of course, when in doubt, default back to the manufacturer's instructions, as they're designed to keep your new drive's warranty in effect.

Drive vendors also often provide software tools to assist you in setting up the new drive and moving files to it. I've never found these tools particularly useful, but my PC use tends to be nonstandard. If such tools come with your new drive, they're certainly worth looking at and in fact might be all you need.

Ready For The Next Step?
In the previous column, we discussed using the Windows Disk Management tool. And in this column, we looked at what's involved in physically juggling hard drives. Although each of these columns stands alone, they also form the foundation for our upcoming discussion of an extremely low-cost terabyte server. Stay tuned!

To discuss this column with other readers, please visit Fred Langa's forum.

To find out more about Fred Langa, please visit his page.

http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=181502411

 

UK court on ISP liability

p2p news / p2pnet: The UK Court, Queen's Bench division, issued an important decision on the liability of Internet service providers late last week.

Unlike the US, which established statutory immunity for intermediaries where they simply provide the forum for publication, Commonwealth countries such as the UK, Canada, and Australia still rely on common law principles leaving some question about the standard of liability for intermediaries for allegedly defamatory content posted on their sites.

Bunt v Tilley involved an attempt to hold AOL, Tiscali, and British Telecom liable for allegedly defamatory postings. The claimant relied on the Godfrey v. Demon Internet case to argue that the court could hold the ISPs liable.

That case has generated concern among ISPs in Canada as it does hold out the prospect for liability. The court was clearly uncomfortable with that decision, however, issuing a decision that was generally sympathetic to the ISPs.

In particular, the court concluded that "an ISP which performs no more than a passive role in facilitating postings on the internet cannot be deemed to be a publisher at common law."

That is the good news as it provides some comfort to ISPs who can rely on this case to argue that they are not liable for doing nothing more than hosting content.

Michael Geist
[Geist is the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa. He can be reached by email at mgeist[at]uottawa.ca and is on-line at www.michaelgeist.ca.]

(Wednesday 15th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/8208

 

Dutchnova.com bites the dust

p2p news / p2pnet: Holland's largest torrent site, Dutchnova.com, with some 25,000 members, is the latest victim to fall to entertainment cartel action.

Dutchnova.com pulled the plug last night at 00:01am, says Witheet.

According to Dutchnova volunteer Divxlover, Brein shut Dutchnova down by intimidating its hosting provider Denit Services, says the post.

Brein threatened to sue Dutchnova unless its owners admitted publicly on their site that they'd "infringed copyright," promising never to do it again, says Witheet.

On top of that, Brein was demanding access to personal information on Dutchnova members.

"This is pure intimidation" Divxlover is quoted as saying, going on that in his view, the threat boiled down to a default letter Brein sends out, "to scare people who don't know better".

"They even say we're commercial," he continues. "That's a lie. We never made any money off the site.And we didn't infringe any copyright, since there are no copyrighted files physically available on our server."

What about the threats to users?

Dutchnova destroyed its database, says Divxlover. So there's no fear of members' information ending up with Brein.

Meanwhile, "Unfortunately our hosting provider reported that a complaint was filed by BREIN in which they argue that Dutchnova is spreading copyrighted material and that there's a 'financial motive' to run the site (whatever that may mean)," says what used to be the Dutchnova site.

"This is not true and is pure intimidation!

"However, relationship with our hosting provider is worth a lot to us so for now we comply to their request and take the site offline.

"Thanks for the good times!"

Dutchnova that was still has a chat area, however.

(Thanks a lot, E)

(Wednesday 15th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/8206

 

UK broadband - slooooow

p2p news / p2pnet: Most UK broadband users are logging on with connections slower than 2Mbps because many ISPs are reselling them connectivity bought from BT Wholesale. And that's capped at 2Mbps, tops, says Silicon.com.

But, "With the advent of local loop unbundling - where ISPs can effectively take over a telephone exchange by putting in their own equipment - speeds are expected to rise," it says, quoting a.report from XTN Data.

XTN also found the average broadband customer spends three hours surfing for fun every day and interestingly, "the average dial-up user spends roughly the same time online, according to the report".

Most UK high-speed broadband users are NTL-Telewest customers, a combined figure of 26%, followed by BT at 18% and AOL with 11%, says Silicon,com, adding:

"Broadband Britain seems to now be a relatively settled nation, with just 10 per cent of users eyeing up a switch to another provider."

The largest group of broadband users, 39%, surf at speeds of 2Mbps, followed by 29% on 1Mbps and another 20% on 512Kbps, says XTN.

Also See:
Silicon.com - Are you a normal broadband user?, March 15, 2006

(Wednesday 15th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/8207

 

Congress wants to know if your iPod is making you deaf
3/15/2006 11:40:49 AM, by Nate Anderson

Do portable music players put listeners at special risk for hearing loss? That's what Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) recently asked the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (part of the National Institutes of Health). Markey is concerned about "the risk of possible hearing loss through overuse or misuse of these devices over time." The danger seems to be a real one—after all, portable players like the iPod can pump out more than 100 dB—and it's not clear that children, especially, understand the risks.

Markey's inquiry was directed to James Battey, head of the NIDOCD, who has just released a letter in response to the congressman's questions. Battey made clear that prolonged listening at high volumes is known to have a detrimental effect on hearing. Still, he said that "more research is required to determine if a particular type (of earphone) increases the risk." This last bit is in reference to recent claims that earbud-style headphones cause more problems than older, earmuff-style ones because the sound is blasted directly into the ear canal. No one is sure yet whether this is true. Though sound is diffused more broadly by the older-style headphones, it might well be true that people simply crank up the volume to compensate.

A couple of basic suggestions can help save your ears: take frequent listening breaks to let the ears relax, and listen to music at a reasonable volume (generally 60 percent or less of your player's maximum). While this might seem like common sense, the ease with which people can now listen to music makes the temptation to listen longer and louder a common one. Headphones are a common sight on public transportation, for instance, since the music helps liven up an otherwise dull experience. However (and I speak from personal experience), using an iPod to drown out the sound of a subway car and the conversation of fellow passengers means the you have to turn it up—way up. Only when you step out of the train do you realize just how loudly you've been blasting that Ted Leo & the Pharmacists song.

So what's a consumer to do? Sue, of course. A lawsuit is already pending against Apple over this very issue, claiming that an iPod can simply get too loud to be healthy (Apple was forced to lower the maximum volume on all iPods sold in France for this very reason). With Congress now showing some interest in the issue, regulation is also a possibility. There's no obvious place to draw the line, though; what may be an unsafe volume for punk rock could turn out to be barely listenable for a Chopin nocturne. Still, some education on the matter wouldn't hurt, especially if targeted at schoolchildren, who are generally too young to be worried about their bodies breaking down. As the NIH warns, "sounds of sufficient intensity and duration could damage the ear and result in temporary or permanent hearing loss at any age."

If you're worried about hearing loss, it might be time to exercise some personal responsibility and shut the iPod off for a few hours. Just because you can listen to music everywhere doesn't mean that you should.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060315-6387.html

 

Pork chops, the MPAA and movies

'Most intelligent'

p2p news / p2pnet: "I believe that no technology exists, or will ever exist, that replaces the experience of watching towering images in the dark with a crowd of people who laugh, cry and feel terrified at the same moment you do. The question is, are people like me a dying breed?"

The words are MPAA boss China Dan Glickman's and they came at the 2006 Las Vegas Showest glitzorama during his 'state of the movie industry' speech.

And in a typical Glickman non sequitur, "it's just a matter of time until the competitive marketplace makes high-tech home entertainment more affordable and accessible to everyone," he declared. "Not to mention the expanding competition for our customers' time and entertainment dollar - from video games to pay-per-view sporting events, to the Internet."

Earlier, Glickman admitted the operative word for 2005 was down - audience numbers were down, profits were down, although they, "remained near $9 billion, a barrier broken for the first time only three years ago," and the global box office was down.

So how to make things go up?

"If there is a silver bullet answer it is, very simply, that everyone must perform their respective roles and perform them well" and, he said, "I'd suggest first - and quite obviously - that movie-makers must continue to turn out quality movies with compelling and entertaining stories that audiences want to see."

"Continue to" should, of course, be, "start to".

"It is your job to ask, why should they come to my theater rather than staying at home?" - he instructed the cinema owners. "Why should they sit in my seats and eat my popcorn rather than on their sofa with the microwave variety?"

Perhaps because home-made popcorn is fresh and flavoured with real butter instead of some kind of oily taste-alike, and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Moreover, there are no sticky floors, ushers with night-vision scopes, loud-mouths or cell phones to ruin the experience.

Of pork, beef and milk
Glickman said the MPAA was strategizing to, "bolster our own effectiveness" and that it was important to, "better understand consumer attitudes about our industry".

"I've directed the staff of the MPAA to conduct research into these and other important questions – the first time we as an association have undertaken such a project," he went on.

"When I was at the Department of Agriculture, industries like pork, beef and milk spent a lot of money promoting generically the value of these products. Not any specific brand name, but the foods themselves. Not to suggest that the movies are like pork chops."

With pork chops in mind, you can now look forward to a National Movie Week, next year, "to generate enthusiasm, excitement and better understanding of movies".

As usual, Hollywood expects US taxpayers to fund it.

The MPAA, "will be working to get Congress to pass a resolution recognizing a week in March as 'National Movie Week'," said Glickman.

School invasion
Finally, "it wouldn't be an MPAA speech if I didn't talk about piracy," he concluded, and, "making sure consumers actually pay for the movie experience continues to be at the core of our mission," again emphasising that congress needed to be roped in to help Hollywood continue to haul down outrageous profits.

"We are advocating legislation at the federal and state levels to fight movie piracy," he declared. "From enacting anti-camcording laws that punish people who go into your theaters with the sole purpose of stealing movies, to promoting digital anti-piracy laws designed to stop people from stealing movies from the comfort of their homes, we are aggressively moving forward to protect the value of the movies we all love."

Glickman also warned that school marketing invasions disguised as 'educational' programs, with school staffs acting as unpaid Hollywood reps, will be escalated.

"We have a plan to go to Universities and High schools and spread the word that illegally downloading our movies is both morally and legally wrong, and such activity does have consequences," he said.

"This is important, because if we don't teach the children to respect copyrights, we will lose the next generation of customers."

As Charles Darwin once observed, "It is not the strongest or the most intelligent of species that survive, but the ones most responsive to change," observed Glickman.

Also See:
anti-camcording laws - MPAA vs Kids with Camcorders, March 13, 2006

(Wednesday 15th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/82

 

How Much Does Google Know About You?

If you think your search keywords are private, think again.

Andrew Brandt
From the April 2006 issue of PC World magazine
Posted Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Want to know what's going on in someone's mind? Look at the words they enter in their favorite search engine. Fortunately, that information is private, right? Maybe not.


Advertisement




If you use Google, for instance, and are not blocking cookies, the search engine likely has placed a cookie on your system that won't expire until 2038. That cookie lets Google track what you searched for, when you conducted the search, and which results you clicked. The cookie doesn't identify you by name, but it does identify you by your system's information and IP address.

This is what the U.S. government was after when it subpoenaed Google for search records of millions of random users to establish the need for a federal online pornography law. The company was fighting the subpoena as this article went to press, but AOL, MSN, and Yahoo have already given the government at least some of the kinds of data it wants.

The case highlights the sensitivity of search records in general, and Google's in particular. The company's position at the top of the search engine food chain means that its archives could contain years of detailed logs on what millions of users search for and where they surf. (Google has not said how long it keeps such records and didn't respond to our requests for information on the subject.)

Fortunately, there are well-established ways to rid your PC of tracking cookies, either using your browser or one of many third-party antispyware and system cleanup utilities. For detailed instructions on cleansing private information from your browser, see this month's Internet Tips.

But ending the privacy threat that cookies pose requires action by Web sites as well as by individuals. As storage gets cheaper, system administrators at commercial sites tend to log everything and keep the data as long as possible, broadening the window for misuse. At last December's Usenix Large Installation System Administration conference, an Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney recommended that administrators keep only the logs they need, and destroy the rest.

If Google truly wishes to live up to its corporate motto--"Don't Be Evil"--the company should be selective about the logs that it keeps, and should chuck everything else.
-- Andrew Brandt

Andrew Brandt is a senior associate editor for PC World. E-mail him at privacywatch@pcworld.com.
http://pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,124775,00.asp

 

Hot pepper kills prostate cancer cells in study
Reuters

March 15, 2006 04:35:19 PM PST

Capsaicin, which makes peppers hot, can cause prostate cancer cells to kill themselves, U.S. and Japanese researchers said on Wednesday.

Capsaicin led 80 percent of human prostate cancer cells growing in mice to commit suicide in a process known as apoptosis, the researchers said.

Prostate cancer tumors in mice fed capsaicin were about one-fifth the size of tumors in untreated mice, they reported in the journal Cancer Research.

"Capsaicin had a profound anti-proliferative effect on human prostate cancer cells in culture," said Dr. Soren Lehmann of the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine.

"It also dramatically slowed the development of prostate tumors formed by those human cell lines grown in mouse models."

While it is far easier to cure cancer in mice infected with human tumors than it is in human beings, the findings suggest a possible future treatment. They also may offer a good excuse for men who like spicy food to eat more of it.

Lehmann estimated that the mice ate the human equivalent of 400 milligrams of capsaicin three times a week. That is about the amount found in three to eight fresh habanero peppers, depending on how hot the peppers are.

The capsaicin inhibited the activity of NF-kappa beta, a molecular mechanism that helps lead to apoptosis in many cell types.

Prostate cancer is the most common malignant cancer in U.S. men. It is diagnosed in 232,000 men every year and kills up to 30,000 of them. Worldwide, 221,000 men die every year from prostate cancer.

The chemical compound capsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) is the active component of chile peppers (Capsicum). It is an irritant for mammals including humans and produces a sensation of burning in the mouth. Capsaicin and several related compounds are called capsaicinoids and are produced as a secondary metabolite by certain plants of the genus Capsicum (chile peppers), probably as deterrants against herbivores. Birds are generally not sensitive to capsaicinoids. Pure capsaicin is a lipophilic colorless odorless crystalline to waxy compound.

Capsaicin is the main capsaicinoid in chile peppers, followed by dihydrocapsaicin. These two compounds are also about twice as hot as the minor capsaicinoids nordihydrocapsaicin, homodihydrocapsaicin, and homocapsaicin. Dilute solutions of pure capsaicinoids produced different types of pungency; however, these differences were not noted using more concentrated solutions.

 

Movies File Share Top Ten



p2pnet.net Feature:- p2pnet's Movies File Share Top Ten is compiled from statistics supplied by p2p research company Big Champagne.

Only on p2pnet.

If you want to see how BC develops them, head over to our Q&A with ceo Eric Garland here.

Note: If a movie returns after being out of the charts for two weeks or longer, it's designated 'new'. 'Return' means back after a week's absence.

Movies Top Ten File Share Downloads, Global
Week ending March 16, 2006
Ranking Movie Number of Downloads
01 >>> Final Destination 3 (unchanged) 1,155,833
02 >>> Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire (new) 1,143,818
03 >>> Saw 2 (unchanged) 1,129,822
04 >>> The Pink Panther - #2 1,088,313
05 >>> Date Movie + #6 1,078,254
06 >>> Failure To Launch (new) 1,072,360
07 >>> Walk The Line + #10 1,066,603
08 >>> Eight Below - #7 1,034,379
09 >>> Jarhead (new) 1,029,804
10 >>> 16 Blocks (new) 1,018,335

Movies Top Ten File Share Downloads, USA
Week ending March 16, 2006
Ranking Movie Number of Downloads
01 >>> Final Destination 3 (unchanged) 633,525
02 >>> Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire (new) 617,055
03 >>> Saw 2 (unchanged) 605,447
04 >>> Date Movie + #6 602,631
05 >>> Failure To Launch (new) 587,962
06 >>> The Pink Panther - #2 585,294
07 >>> Walk The Line + #9 579,203
08 >>> Eight Below - #7 573,653
09 >>> Madea's Family Reunion - #4 559,852
10 >>> Jarhead (new) 526,011

(Thursday 16th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/8215

 

iTunes movies at $10 per,

p2p news / p2pnet: Steve Jobs has Macolytes and other iTunes users figured out.

Buoyed by the fact they willingly and repeatedly pay a dollar and up for limited selections of seriously over-priced Big Four Organized Music cartel music 'product,' he's confident they'll also pay through the nose for old movies.

"Apple has started selling the first full-length movie through its iTunes media store," says vnunet. "The Disney television movie High School Musical is offered at $9.99, after being briefly available for $1.99.

"The movie was a hit when first broadcast on the Disney Channel, attracting an audience of 7.7 million viewers. But iTunes users have complained about the movie's relatively high price and limited resolution. While the download costs as much as a regular DVD, it offers only a limited resolution of 320 x 240 pixels and none of the bonus features typically found on a DVD."

Jobs recently sold his Pixar Animation Studios to Disney for $7.4 billion, in the process gaining a seat on the Disney board and access to Disney movies.

Also See:
vnunet - Users choke on price of Apple's first iTunes movie, March 16, 2006
Omigod Origami - OMG it's HUGE !!!, March 11, 2006
said the UN - $100 laptop wins UN backing, January 26, 2006
recently sold - Disney buys Pixar for $7.4B, January 25, 2006

(Thursday 16th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/8214

 

Targeted XBox ads

p2p news / p2pnet: Bill and the Boyz have a treat in store for XBox and other users.

"Targeted" display ads.

"Microsoft is testing multiple display formats with executions from 20 advertisers, including Coca-Cola Brazil, JCPenney and Monster Worldwide," says Clickz News.

"Windows Live display ads are being tested in MSN Spaces in Australia and Italy. Windows Live Mail display ads are being tested in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK and the United States. Office Live display ads are being tested in the U.S."

The story has Microsoft product manager Karen Redetzki saying, "We're confident that advertisers are going to see good results."

Test "creative" display ads differ for each "service," but spaces will carry "super banners" and skyscrapers. "Live Mail will have super banners, skyscrapers, and a few other units in the login area, inbox, and on screens where users read or send mail," says the story. "Office Live inventory will include display ads of various sizes and placements. Eventually, these may be joined by text ads, rich media and video formats, Redetzki said."

Wanting a large piece of the $20 billion global Internet ad market, Microsoft wants to sell advertising with all its online services, "including Xbox Live for games, said Eric Hadley, senior director of advertising and marketing for Microsoft's MSN unit, in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

"Everyone is trying to figure out how to get advertising into their products in a smart way," Hadley said. "If you look at the audience that Xbox Live attracts, everyone wants to reach that audience."

So let's see. Whether you like it or not, that game box (for which you paid a ton of dollars) and Windows Live, etc, will now be used to try to sell you stuff you don't want. And all the financial benefits thereof will go to Bill and the Boyz.

That's how you get to be a 50-billionaire.

"Adding advertising to MSN spaces is an interesting decision, especially when competitive services such as Blogger are not only ad-free, but provide tools for bloggers to earn revenue through easy implementation of Google AdSense," says SearchEngineWatch.

"However, bloggers will be relieved to learn that initial advertising in MSN Spaces is limited to Australia and Italy at this time."

When it's discussing AdSense, SearchEngineWatch should qualify its statements.

"Easy implementation of Google AdSense" only works for some. For others, Google wrongly assumes click-sins have been committed, blocks the ads, keeps the income and flatly refuses to explain.

Also See:
Clickz News - Windows Live Ad Tests Underway, March 16, 2006
Seattle Post-Intelligencer - More sign on for Microsoft online ads, March 16, 2006
SearchEngineWatch - Microsoft Begins Testing Advertising In Live Products, March 15, 2006
wrongly assumes - Adsense, p2pnet and 'fake clicks', February 11, 2006

(Thursday 16th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/8211

 

Gates disses MIT's $100 laptop,

p2p news / p2pnet: About three months to the day that Intel boss Craig Barrett poured scorn on the $100 laptop computer developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bill Gates has done the same.

The idea behind the cheap, self-powered laptop is to give poor people around the world an effective and afforable way to communicate with each other.

But, "The last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk ... and with a tiny little screen," Gates said at the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum in suburban Washington, according to Reuters.

"I think a more realistic title should be 'the $100 gadget'," said Intel chief Craig Barrett last December.

Now, "If you are going to go have people share the computer, get a broadband connection and have somebody there who can help support the user, geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you're not sitting there cranking the thing while you're trying to type," Gates is quoted as saying.

Guess whose?

In an amazing coincidence, just before pissing on the MIT effort, Gates showed off his new "ultra-mobile" Omigod Origami mini-maxi with its seven-inch (17.78-centimeter) touch screen, says Reuters.

Is this something for cash-strapped developing nations? If they can fork out between $600 and $1,000 each, it is.

Meanwhile, "Aiming to give poor communities access to the benefits of information technology, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has announced plans to support an innovative project which aims to put cheap and energy-efficient laptop computers in the hands of the world's most disadvantaged students," said the UN in January.

"The innovative $100 laptop project, designed to give children in developing countries access to the knowledge and educational tools that could lift them out of poverty, will take a step closer to realization."

Also See:
taken a page - Quanta to build MIT $100 laptop, December 15, 2006
Reuters - Bill Gates mocks MIT's $100 laptop project, March 15, 2006
Omigod Origami - OMG it's HUGE !!!, March 11, 2006
said the UN - $100 laptop wins UN backing, January 26, 2006

(Thursday 16th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/8213

 

Tests find DRM shortens player battery life by up to ~25%


Posted by Seán Byrne on 16 March 2006 - 01:03 - Source: c|net News - MP3 Insider

When users take the specifications of an MP3 player into consideration, one very important factor most take into account is the rated battery life. However, as many are aware, the battery life stated is generally the runtime from a full charge in ideal conditions, such as when the player is left playing without any sound enhancements (EQ, bass-boost, etc.), volume set to a moderate level, all music is 128kbps MP3, backlit display goes out within a few seconds and so on. However, according to tests conducted by CNET, they found that while many players met or exceeded their claims, one feature that has a drastic affect on battery life is the infamous DRM.

When it comes to the Creative Zen Vision:M's 14-hour claim, CNET got about 16 hours of playback time with MP3s from a full charge, which was a nice surprise. However, when they tried playing WMA 10 DRM crippled subscription tracks on it, they only got just over 12 hours; a loss of almost 4 hours (~25%) of playback time due to the battery-hungry DRM. CNET found similar results with other players with WMA DRM drastically reducing battery life by up to around 20%. Apple's FairPlay DRM seems to have less of an effect with battery life being reduced by around 8% when compared with MP3 playback.

Those who belong to subscription services such as Napster or Rhapsody have it worse. Music rented from these services arrive in the WMA DRM 10 format, and it takes extra processing power to ensure that the licenses making the tracks work are still valid and match up to the device itself. Heavy DRM not only slows down an MP3 player but also sucks the very life out of them. Take, for instance, the critically acclaimed Creative Zen Vision:M, with a rated battery life of up to 14 hours for audio and 4 hours for video. CNET tested it at nearly 16 hours, with MP3s--impressive indeed. Upon playing back only WMA subscription tracks, the Vision:M scored at just more than 12 hours. That's a loss of almost 4 hours, and you haven't even turned the backlight on yet.

We found similar discrepancies with other PlaysForSure players. The Archos Gmini 402 Camcorder maxed out at 11 hours, but with DRM tracks, it played for less than 9 hours. The iRiver U10, with an astounding life of about 32 hours, came in at about 27 hours playing subscription tracks. Even the iPod, playing back only FairPlay AAC tracks, underperformed MP3s by about 8 percent. What I'm saying is that while battery life may not be a critical issue today, as it was when one of the original hard drive players--the Creative Nomad Jukebox--lasted a pathetic 4 hours running on four AA nickel-metal-hydride rechargeables (and much worse on alkalines), the industry needs to include battery specs for DRM audio tracks or the tracks we're buying or subscribing. Yet, here's another reason why we should still be ripping our music in MP3: better battery life, the most obvious reason being universal device compatibility.

continued of the main story bottom of the page

The full article can be read here.
http://www.mp3.com/features/stories/3646.html

MP3 Insider: The truth about your battery life
By CNET Staff
March 13, 2006 at 03:44:00 PM

We deliver the truth behind one of the most questionable manufacturer specs in the latest MP3 Insider.

One of the key specs you mustn't ignore before purchasing an MP3 player is its battery life. This number, whether it's 14 hours (the 30GB 5G iPod) or up to 35 hours of audio playback (the 30GB Cowon iAudio X5L), gives you an estimate of how long your gadget will play tunes on a single charge--in the best-case scenario.

For most manufacturers, the perfect scenario requires that you play only MP3s encoded at 128Kbps; you're wearing bundled earbuds; your volume level is at about 50 to 75 percent; the backlight of your screen turns off automatically within 5 to 10 seconds; your equalizer setting is flat or normal; there are no DSP settings (such as the iPod's Sound Check) enabled; you listen to your music in one, maybe two sessions; and if applicable, you don't view any photos or videos. Given that these conditions are rarely ever met in the real world, you'll never achieve the number x in "up to x hours."

That's OK. If battery life is your primary concern--and it may be for world travelers--then you'll naturally go with a player that has at least 20 hours of rated battery life per charge or AA (or AAA) battery, as stated in the player specifications. This figure is rarely ever left out of specs, by the way. The best hard drive-based players last more than 20 hours--such as the Sony NW-HD5 and the Cowon iAudio X5L; the best flash players--such as anything from Sony, Samsung's YP-T6, and iRiver's T10--last more than 40 hours.

You may read MP3 player reviews to verify battery life. Here at CNET, we drain MP3 players using a methodology that's similar to those found in the preceding paragraph. We know which players and brands outperform or underperform. Apple iPods typically outperform the company's ratings. In our tests, the 30GB 5G iPod lasted 14.5 hours, 30 minutes longer than what Apple claims. The Cowon iAudio X5L, on the other hand, tested at 27 hours when it was rated for 35. Factors such as sound quality, features, format compatibility, and looks may overshadow battery life, but when your player runs out of juice, it doesn't really matter which features it has or how good it sounds.

In the real world, there are plenty of factors that will help drain your battery much quicker than you'd like. For example, while the iPod's 14-hour audio-only rating is acceptable (the first iPods had 8 to 9 hours per charge), I never get that many hours, and in fact, I average less than 8 hours. My battery isn't dying prematurely; rather, I like to have my screen on and browse photos, as well as watch an occasional video and crank the volume up.

Adding to the battery drain is my tendency to use big headphones, which draw serious juice and therefore increase noise and distortion, and the fact that I am the type of user who constantly browses and switches tracks, which basically means my hard drive is in constant motion. My music library consists of higher-bit-rate MP3s, purchased iTunes tracks, and even a few WAV and Apple Lossless tracks--all of which require more decoding/processing power than a vanilla 128Kbps MP3. The same applies to variable bit-rate files.

Those who belong to subscription services such as Napster or Rhapsody have it worse. Music rented from these services arrive in the WMA DRM 10 format, and it takes extra processing power to ensure that the licenses making the tracks work are still valid and match up to the device itself. Heavy DRM not only slows down an MP3 player but also sucks the very life out of them. Take, for instance, the critically acclaimed Creative Zen Vision:M, with a rated battery life of up to 14 hours for audio and 4 hours for video. CNET tested it at nearly 16 hours, with MP3s--impressive indeed. Upon playing back only WMA subscription tracks, the Vision:M scored at just more than 12 hours. That's a loss of almost 4 hours, and you haven't even turned the backlight on yet.

We found similar discrepancies with other PlaysForSure players. The Archos Gmini 402 Camcorder maxed out at 11 hours, but with DRM tracks, it played for less than 9 hours. The iRiver U10, with an astounding life of about 32 hours, came in at about 27 hours playing subscription tracks. Even the iPod, playing back only FairPlay AAC tracks, underperformed MP3s by about 8 percent. What I'm saying is that while battery life may not be a critical issue today, as it was when one of the original hard drive players--the Creative Nomad Jukebox--lasted a pathetic 4 hours running on four AA nickel-metal-hydride rechargeables (and much worse on alkalines), the industry needs to include battery specs for DRM audio tracks or the tracks we're buying or subscribing. Yet, here's another reason why we should still be ripping our music in MP3: better battery life, the most obvious reason being universal device compatibility.

Sony is one company that's been more up front about digital audio playback times. The company's players tend to have the best rated battery life, consistently more than 40 hours, but this is playing its own format, ATRAC3, at a lower-than-typical bit rate. The box of the NW-HD5 states that the device can get up to 40 hours of continuous playback when playing 48Kbps ATRAC3plus tracks, which are not the most common tracks. But it also states that actual battery life "may vary based on usage patterns." Basically, rated battery life should be used as a guide and never be taken literally.





continued main story
When it comes to maximising battery life in a portable MP3 player, this is a clear sign that one should avoid playing DRM protected music if at all possible and also another good reason to get the music converted into a more battery-friendly format. While 2 to 4 hours may not seem a lot to some people, this can be the difference between listening to music to the end of a lengthy journey or getting left in silence a couple of hours before the journey is complete.

With the shorter battery life caused by DRM, this means that consumers have to recharge their battery more often, which in turn results in a shorter overall battery life before it needs replacement. Finally, while most MP3 players now have a rechargeable battery, for those who still use disposable AA/AAA type batteries and listen to copy-protected music, not only does DRM cut their listening time, but it also costs them more in replacing batteries, not to mention more battery waste building up in landfills (if not recycled).
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13193

 

New custom NEC firmwares available from Liggy and Dee


Posted by Dan Bell on 16 March 2006 - 03:17 - Source: Liggy and Dee's Firmware Page

Those CD Freaks out there that have NEC drives, you may want to pay a visit to Liggy and Dee's Firmware Page for some special (some untested) firmwares to enhance your drives capabilities. As always, you are encouraged to visit our NEC Burner forum at the Club CD Freaks if you want to keep up to date with what is going on with the extremely popular burners. We have a very large and active NEC community that are extreme fans of this companies hardware and for good reason, these are some kick ass drives!
I just made a small update to our site and added some firmwares. Most of them are still untested. As always original and RPC1 version are available and where needed Riplock too of course.

* ND3520A: 3.07 Bitsetting Firmware
* ND3540A: 1.04 Bitsetting Firmware
* ND3551A: 2.01 Bitsetting Firmware
* ND4550A: 1.29 Firmware
* ND4551A: 1-21 and 1-22 Firmware
* ND4570A: 1.02 Bitsetting Firmware
* ND4571A: 1-01 Bitsetting Firmware
* ND6500A: 203d and 403d Firmware
* ND6750A: 2.01 Bitsetting Firmware, 2.P1 Firmware
* ND7550A: 1.01 Bitsetting Firmware, 1.P1 and 1.32 Firmware
* ND7551A: fixed small bug in 1-02 Bitsetting Firmware.

Please note that some of the modified firmwares will NOT work on crossflashed drives

In case you are interested, you can also visit this dedicated link in the NEC forum
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?p=1326720#post1326720
to join in on the discussion of these new firmware patches.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13194

 

PlayStation delay to let developers finish games?


Posted by Dan Bell on 16 March 2006 - 04:48 - Source: CNN

DamnedIfIknow used our news submit to tell us about another theory being bandied about over at CNN Money. DamnedIfIknow summed it up the best he could with this witticism: "Ancient Japanese saying: "Game console with no games make good doorstop."

While the Sony faithful are mourning the official announcement of the PlayStation 3"s delay, the truth of the matter is that Wednesday"s news will ultimately prove to be a good thing.

The official word from Sony is that technology delays are the reason it was unable to make its initial spring launch date - and that very well may be true. But an unspoken, though likely just as prevalent reason for the delay is to give developers more time to polish - and, in some cases, finish - their games.

It's true that there are not any developers knocking down doors for a lack of a newer Sony Platform to display their latest incantations. But let's be honest, this delay is all about the inability to deploy Blu-ray...not putting the finishing touches on gaming entertainment.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13195

 

DVD2one updated to version 2.0.4-fast compression of movies

Posted by Dan Bell on 16 March 2006 - 06:41 - Source: DVD2one

This software can help you to backup a DVD movie to a single layer disc. The main point of interest with this software is it's unique compression algorithm that gets the job done fast, yet also reportedly affords good quality. If you have a multi CPU rig or a multi-core processor, then this program can take advantage of this.

You can copy an entire disc or just the movie only to save space and improve the output. It even features a built-in burning engine.

What's new in this version:

* Languages added: Hungarian (thanks to Fitos Zoltan) and Swedish (thanks to Christer Carlsson).
* Fixed a small problem: Corrupted headers in the video stream could crash DVD2one (thanks again to forum member NinjaSteve).
* Changed the way mastering errors are handled in full disc copy mode: Instead of giving an error message and stop processing, now the errors are corrected and a warning will be displayed after processing.
* Added option for fixed destination directory.
Mac: Disabled a compiler option that caused DVD2oneX not to run on a G3.

Those interested can find more information and a download here.
http://www.dvd2one.com/
The trial is for 14 days, if you like it and wish to register, it's $39.99Euro, which is ~$48.00US.
http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/13196

 

Samsung sees opportunity in Vista upgrades

Samsung Electronics sees a $370 million market springing up later this year for computer owners who want to upgrade to Vista, Microsoft's highly anticipated operating system, but do not want to buy a new PC, a Samsung executive said on Wednesday.

Some 37 million personal computers have been sold in the United States over the last three years with a processor that is powerful enough to run Microsoft's Vista, according to Don Barnetson, an associate director of Samsung's semiconductor division.

"About 10 percent of that 37 million represents potential upgrade candidates. They will buy, on average, about $100 worth of hardware, so that is (an opportunity of) about $370 million worth of upgrade components in the U.S.," Barnetson said.

To be upgraded, the machines need only to have certain hardware components improved, such as video and flash memory, which Samsung expects to sell in a bundle at retail.

"For $250, you can take your home PC and upgrade it to Vista" with Samsung's package, he said. "Or you can buy a new one for $1,000."

The business opportunity afforded by that low-cost upgrade option could expand as Vista is unveiled globally, he said, adding that while Microsoft would be involved in the marketing of the system, Samsung would be partnering primarily with retailers.
The vast majority of the world's personal computers run Windows operating-system software, and previous upgrades typically sparked a wave of PC upgrades, since older machines struggled to supply the power needed to run the software.

But overall adoption of Windows XP, the last major upgrade, introduced in 2001, was slow, Barnetson said.

A low-cost upgrade option could strike a sour note for PC makers like Dell and Hewlett-Packard, which would benefit from a rush to buy new PCs.

"We are not suggesting 'don't buy a PC,'" Barnetson said. "The PC upgrade cycle will continue. But don't delay the adoption of an operating system until you get a new PC."
http://news.com.com/Samsung+sees+opportunity+in+Vista+upgrades/2100-1006_3-6050338.html?tag=nefd.top

 

BigChampagne launches BCDash

p2p news / p2pnet: P2p research and marketing firm BigChampagne, which supplies the stats for p2pnet's unique Movies File Share Top Ten, says it's releasing BCDash,
http://www.bigchampagne.com/

a modular, customized set of online analytic tools integrating consumer data from corporate digital media companies.

BCDash will feature charts and "deeper analysis" of data from Yahoo Music, AOL Music and AOL Radio, RealNetworks' Rhapsody, MusicIP and SNOCAP, among others, says BigChampagne.

It'll also include industry news and analysis provided by Digital Music News, which will also perform long-form analysis of BigChampagne data and jointly author publications on the issues facing digital media, say the two companies.

In a separate announcement, BigChampagne Online Media Measurement and MusicIP says they'll map the online music preferences of listeners worldwide.

BigChampagne will provide information about artists and songs, supplying MusicIP with additional empirical information about what online music fans in specific markets are demanding, they say.

In turn, "MusicIP will provide anonymous, aggregated reports on the collection statistics of tens of millions of MusicIP -powered desktops, portable devices, media players and Web sites."

The end result will be, " the largest collection of information about online music consumption into real, actionable intelligence that will be used by both consumers and businesses," says BigChampagne ceo Eric Garland, who recently became a new member of the What's The Download Interactive Advisory Board.

(Thursday 16th March 2006)
http://p2pnet.net/story/8218

 

Windows XP on Intel iMac: confirmed

3/16/2006 9:20:23 AM, by Clint Ecker

Over the past few days, Infinite Loop has been following developments which seemed to indicate that a workable solution for installing Windows XP on Apple's Intel-based computers had been developed. Reactions were, at first, mixed. Most people, jaded by months of fakery on just about every hot Apple rumor imaginable, dismissed the solution out of hand, but those who had been following the progress of the author of this particular hack were fairly confident that he had sealed the deal.

For those unaware, a website titled Windows XP on Mac has been collecting a pool of donations for anyone who could successfully boot Windows XP on an unmodified Intel Mac. The pool grew slowly at first, but as the news of the contest spread, it passed the US$13,000 mark. The first hint that "narf" may have figured it out came in the form of a set of photos on Flickr that seemed to show Windows XP on an iMac of some sort. Next came the videos and an acknowledgement from the contest administrators that a solution had been submitted. And finally, this morning, onmac.net announced that a proposed solution had been found and had been tested successfully. The contest had been won, and it looks like "narf" is about to almost US$14,000 richer.

The WindowsXP on Mac website has now posted the solution developed by Narf. It is fairly complicated and will probably be a little difficult for novice users to get a handle on, but I'm certain that an easier, more accessible way to deploy this will become available in a relatively short amount of time. The only downfall that I can see is that you'll need a PC to complete the process, which defeats the purpose of this exercise for a portion of the people who've been anticipating this solution. From the howto.txt:

A custom slipstreamed CD is required to install XP on a Mac.

What you'll need
----------------

* An original XP PRO SP2 CDROM It doesn't have to be bootable, but it should have a I386 directory on the root.

* The xom.zip file.
* Nero Burning ROM
* A blank CD
* A PC of course...
* 20-30 minutes

The instructions lay out the entire process in an abbreviated manner for those users who are more adept at performing "advanced" tasks like repartitioning drives and such, and in a more basic, step-by-step manner for users who might be slightly intimidated by the exercise. When you get down to it, you're creating a custom XP bootdisk, with some of the Microsoft files replaced with patched files created by narf. The files modified/added in the i386 folder are:

* iaStor.sys
* NTDETECT.COM
* TXTSETUP.SIF
* WINNT.SIF
* XOM.INF

In addition there are several files being replaced and/or added in the $OEM$ directory:

* $$/system32/drivers/xomdd.sys
* $1/drivers/iastor/iaahci.cat
* $1/drivers/iastor/iaahci.inf
* $1/drivers/iastor/iaStor.cat
* $1/drivers/iastor/iaStor.sys
* $1/drivers/iastor/TXTSETUP.OEM

The final 5 items are replicated in the $OEM$/TEXTMODE directory. Once you've developed this custom Windows XP bootdisk, you're going to have to repartition your iMac's disk to contain both HFS+ and NTFS partitions, which for most people, means you're probably going to have to blow away your current install. Mac OS X will be installed to an HFS+ partition and you'll be installing an xom.efi bootloader which will then allow you to install Windows XP from your new disc.

At this point you're more or less dealing with a situation no different than your run-of-the-mill budget PC. The implications of this method of installing Windows XP onto any Apple Mac are exciting, to say the least. Anyone with a little know-how is going to be able to dual boot their machines and have access to a world of applications not yet available on their OS of choice. For most people that means they'll be playing EVE Online on their iMacs and for others, they'll finally be able to run a modern PSPICE application on their Mac mini. Apple computers are now the first machines on which you can boot all three major operating systems without (potentially) violating anyone's EULA (it's not yet clear whether or not modifying the Windows XP boot CD is technically legal or not). What is for certain is that a more user-friendly manner of getting Windows XP onto Apple's Intel computers is going to arise from narf's implementation, and in my opinion, it will be a net benefit for everyone involved.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060316-6393.html

 

Gates loves the poor (but Windows more?)

3/16/2006 10:53:35 AM, by Nate Anderson

Bill Gates was recently named one of Time's people of the year for the incredible amounts of money he has given to fight poverty and disease around the world. But just because Bill cares about poor people doesn't mean that he wants to see them use Linux.

Gates demonstrated the new Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC) at the Microsoft Government Leaders Forum this week, and later began trash talking the US$100 PC currently under development at MIT. It's hard to see how a philanthropist could not love a device designed to put basic computing power in the hands of every child on earth, but Gates reached deep down inside and found a way.

"If you are going to go have people share the computer, get a broadband connection and have somebody there who can help support the user, geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you're not sitting there cranking the thing while you're trying to type," Gates said.

Gates also said at the conference that "the last thing you want to do for a shared use computer is have it be something without a disk ... and with a tiny little screen." He's apparently referring to the seven inch screen sported by the US$100 PC, a size shared by—you guessed it—the initial UMPCs.

Though Gates argues that the cost of hardware is tiny compared to the cost of support and building a network infrastructure, it's still a substantial burden for most of the world's poor. Take Uganda, for instance, where the average income is US$270 a year, according to the World Bank. Even a US$100 machine would be too much for families to afford, but it's a relatively small sum that can be subsidized by local governments and international organizations. Boost that cost by a factor of seven or eight, and it's suddenly a lot harder to put computers into as many hands.

Gates' contention is that more powerful hardware can do so much more than the cheaper machine. This may be true, but people who have never used a computer don't need to play Halo, they don't need to manage a 40GB music collection, and they don't need seamless access to iTMS. What they need are the basics: e-mail, the web, word processing. They also need reliability and a power source, both of which are provided by the US$100 PC's hand crank and stripped down feature set (no hard drive, for instance). Many don't have continuous access to electricity, either, making it hard to keep something like the UMPC functioning in rural Cambodian villages.

It's hard not to see money and corporate politics at work here. After all, less than two months ago Microsoft was also trashing the inexpensive MIT computer—and suggesting that a cell phone should take its place. Intel has also been a hater, and in December an executive dismissed the new computer as a gadget.

The biggest rivals of Microsoft and Intel (AMD, Google, and Red Hat) are all substantial contributors to the new project, which does not use Intel hardware or a Microsoft operating system, and doesn't stand to make anyone a pile of money (though it will be a commerical venture). still, you would hope that such tech heavyweights as Microsoft and Intel could lend some assistance (or at least stop the usual FUD) for a project of this magnitude, but that's apparently too much to ask.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20060316-6394.html