DrSchmoe

Who is sitting in judgement? I am just doing my best to incite a guilt-trip Besides, it is an interesting topic, and people have a lot of unique viewpoints. I never really expected this many though. There seems to be four camps: 1.) The "I don't cares." Just here for support, could care less, etc. 2.) The "piracy is bad" camp, although they seem to be somewhat non-vocal. 3.) Those justifying their decision to copy. 4.) Those who feel piracy is OK. I am not sure if I understand SHS's message. I think he was trying to say that a sale ruins my stats? Well, software can be sold as a loss-leader. Many retailers have been selling Q3 at a loss, just to get customers in the door. Thank heavens it is Friday!!!!

You are confusing retail prices with wholesale prices. Just because "Computer Store X" is charging $199 for the upgrade, doesn't mean they are paying that much. In fact, the retailers buy the software from MS for around $120. If MS's cost was $80 per disc, they are making a 33% profit, which is very low for the software industry (typically nearer 75%). The other versions of Windows (server, advanced, etc) help bring this percentage up, but the effect is negligible since their sales volumes are low. Take a $250 Toshiba DVD player for example. Best Buy (or other stores) pay around $95 for the player. Yet, after marketing, staff, distribution, taxes, display, promotions, etc, they only make around 10-15%. A $1000 set of Bose speakers costs your local retailer roughly $275. Quake III, which you can buy for $50 at CompUSA, goes for $10-15 (depending on quantity) on the wholesale market. Does this mean we should rip of Bose and id since they are obviously exploiting us?

Lets not forget that Win2K "does not cost a few bucks to produce." In fact, the total is near $2 Billion. MS is projected to sell 25-30 Million copies this year, doing the math, we see that costs MS $80/copy! That doesn't include costs of distribution, replication, marketing done by retailers, end user support, service pack development, development of the next version, etc. Contrary to popular belief, decent support is available from MS. Check the MS Knowledgebase, probably the most powerful support website available. Furthermore, many new copies of Win2K are purchased with new systems. In these instances, the computer manufacturer (Dell, Gateway, etc) is required to provide support, and generally they do a pretty good job. I am still amazed how many people would never steal a candy bar, but wouldn't give software piracy a second thought. It seems a bit hypocrital doesn't it? My upgrade cost $95 after rebate, I don't understand why that is too expensive (it was a full retail copy from Buy.com). Some people pay more than that for shoes, and they only use the pair for a year at most. NT 4 was around for >3 years. If we assume that Win2K is around for the same period, the cost per day is roughly 10 cents. [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 03 March 2000).]

Okay, I got it!!! Click the checkbox really, really fast when listening to music, and it should sound like all 4 speakers are working!

Doesn't that mean that the "digital audio only" checkbox is selected? If I am not mistaken, you can get to it from the Live mixer.

Darn that is odd. What happens if you remove an HDD and move the CD-ROM to the primary channel? Or, take an HDD and move it to the secondary channel. Could be the cable, or a bent pin. Lastly, could be a BIOS issue, try resetting to defaults, and flashing with an update. [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 03 March 2000).]

Actually, yes, you would see a decent performace gain, but the setup probably wouldn't work with a non-RAID partition sharing a drive (It depends on the solution). It would be significantly better to have stand alone RAID drives, but this might not be feasable if you don't want to buy another drive and you insist on having a non-RAID drive. If you do go the RAID-route, I would suggest having one RAID volume of your two drives (everything is RAID, no non-RAID partitions). You could then break the RAID volume into as many partitions as you feel necessary. Generally, I wouldn't recommend a RAID-0 setup unless you need the speed (working with uncompressed video), or, if a drive dies, you don't care about losing the data (you have backups, whatever). Also, software RAID puts a strain on the the CPU, so, depending on your usage patterns, the CPU hit might be enough to convince you to move to a low-cost hardware solution. And to RYO, RAID-0 (striping) and RAID-1 (mirroring) work with two disks. Unfortunately, I can't name any software RAID products off the top of my head. They are common on Linux and BSD, but not as much on NT. If your disks are IDE, there are some low cost hardware boards that might do the trick. SCSI RAID is still more expensive, but there are some lower-end products available. I personally have always been a fan of AMI RAID technology; you might want to take a look at "HyperDisk." www.megatrends.com [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 03 March 2000).]

Sure I read them I am just wondering how often you use the computer while drunk! That must really make Q3 a little trippy. =) Back to the original question, although in jest, I think www.winternals.com has a small program soley designed to cause various types of crashes. It was written for NT4, so I am kind of curious if it still works, or is available for that matter.

Yuppie: Sure, those features go without saying; my mistake for not clairifying. But I contend there are no added performance benefits or features (of a consumer level) to be had. I was responding to this line: "DrSchmoe, many people like to have the biggest, badest machine with the latest and greatest software." I doubt he means "rack mounded quad processor Xeon," I was thinking more along the lines of a game PC outfitted with a GeForce. If all you are doing is playing Quake, your framerates would probably suffer with the server versions of the OS. However, I am not sure if this has been benchmarked yet. Still, a home user likely can't afford a machine with more than 2 CPUs, isn't going to buy more than 2GB of RAM, and won't have more than 10 concurrent connections. Besides, the concurrent connection limit is in the license agreement, it is not hard coded. See the conflict between O'Reilly and Microsoft 3 years ago regarding the limit. Old press releases might still be available. A home user is not likely to run any of the features you listed. And besides, if they *are* studying for their MSCE, Microsoft provides 120 day time limited versions, plus, they qualify for Academic pricing. In any event, it still doesn't provide justification for piracy. Which is back to my original point It is really intesting to see people get fired up about this. I wasn't expecting this reaction.

Can't think of a good reason to run Advanced Server? It has absolutely no added features or added performance benefit over Pro. Zilch, Nada. If anything, it runs slower because it specifically dedicates more resources to backround services. Furthermore, it costs more to add utilites. For instance, the server version of Diskeeper is considerably more expensive than the workstation version (and the workstation version will not install on Server). Reasonably priced??? The academic version is still $2000. Pro is $120. Usually, I don't suspect people of piracy if they talk about running Pro. However, if someone starts talking about Server or Advanced Server, I get suspicious. How many consumers spend $2000 for an OS? As for your NFR copy, those have extremely limited availability. Most are restricted to TechNet, MSDN members, Corporate Evaluators, and/or somehow regionalized (or the copies themselves are actually pirated). They either expire, or have *many* legal restrictions placed on them. In any event, the vast majority of people couldn't qualify for them. And even if they did get their hands on a copy, the license agreement might prohibit them from using it. Actually, I like this line: "There's no point in starting to suspect them of having pirated copies (even if many of them have)." Whatever

Well, if it makes you feel any better, the PacBell techs hate PPPoE just as much as the users. I would guess it is going to be a short lived fad, or Microsoft will build PPPoE support into 2K, which would make life easy. As mentioned already, the Enhanced plan ($79/mo) does not use PPPoE. Another suggestion would be to look for a different provider, like Covad, or Rhythms. Check: www.dslreports.com for more information.

Yeah, its okay to run Sever at home That is what I meant about "their business can buy it for them." Generally, non-developers have no reason to run Server (with IIS being included in Pro, etc). Sorry about the confusion. I telecommute occasionaly, and consequentially I am running 2K Server on a second box for testing. Don't even get me started on business piracy! [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 01 March 2000).]

Might I suggest using an more appropriate OS? Like buying Win2k Pro. Well, the best option is to insert your ORIGINAL 2K CD, and enter the recovery console and then remove the offending file, which will probably work. I have noticed that RAID controllers can cause this problem, also the "Use a PnP OS" option should be set to "no" in the BIOS. This can cause a problem on some systems. [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 01 March 2000).]

If you think removing hardware is a pain in the rear, you can insert your Win2k CD (you have one, right???), and enter the recovery console. From there you can delete the files. It saves time and the hassle of ripping parts out of your system. I haven't tried yet, but this is a "theoretical easier solution."

Somtimes they will blue screen on the first few reboots. This is normal behavior. If you "reset configuration data" in the BIOS, that usually takes care of the problem (sometimes called the ESCD option). These are EARLY beta drivers. ATi does not recommend using them, but probably feels forced to provide them since they would look bad when compared to Matrox and Nvidia, etc. Once you get the system to boot, GL will work flawlessly, however your system may spontaneously reboot in 2D mode. Honestly, the new drivers are not worth the hassle, unless you absolutely need to play Quake 3. I would stick to the provided drivers on the CD for the next 3 weeks until the final drivers are available.

I don't have this problem, although I have noticed a weird bug with the Bass/Treble sliders. If you put them in the middle (which is where you would expect them to be), they are grossly over volumed. Depending on your speakers, this could cause the crackling. The bundled 2k drivers and the Dell drivers have this problem. The actual "flat" setting for bass and treble is right after the very first dash near the "low" setting. The leaked "beta" Creative drivers fix this, the flat setting is right in the middle where it should be. [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 28 February 2000).]

Did you guys happen to have Outlook open? Or for that matter any MAPI client? For whatever reason the 2K implementation seriously messes up Install Shield. Plus, these things aren't even official betas; they were leaked from somewhere, so there are bound to be quality issues. I have noticed a few odd bugs. Occasionally the drivers will flush the DMA buffers that will cause the sound to skip. I would guess it happens every 10 or so minutes. The jump is barely noticeable, probably 1-2 seconds.

Actually, there is a telnet server bundled with Win2K. Enable it in the "services" applet. You can log in via Telnet and restart the system. CNTRL+ALT+DEL, S, and RETURN would also work, assuming of course your last option in the shut down menu was, "shut down" (not log off, etc). If you aren't sure "shut down" was selected, then hit CNTRL+ALT+DEL, S, and then the up arrow a few times, the down arrow once, and then RETURN (Shut down is the second choice in the list, after log off). [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 28 February 2000).]

For those of you having problems, use this URL instead. It is the exact same server as the one above, but the IP address is in decimal rather than octal format. This fixes FTP client download problems. I figured I would post this, for those of you that can't download the file, or didn't read Yuppie's previous post regarding the correct IP address ftp://4.17.240.8/noamg/Shrink/Liveware 2000 Web/lwW2KWeb.zip [This message has been edited by DrSchmoe (edited 27 February 2000).]

You are talking about your computer, right?!?!?

You guys are all nuts! =) What the heck are you doing that you need >384MB??? The only people that I have seen that require that much memory are 3D Max professionals. I have 128, and Visual Studio, Office, DVD, games, everything runs fine. Granted I have some servers with 1GB+, but a machine serving a 200GB SQL database is hardly a typical activity for a workstation. My Open View management station only has 128. Also, when you increase your memory, you increase the chances of a system crash. If you go from 128 to 384, you are three times more likely to suffer memory related system failure. I know it sounds crazy, but the primary reason for memory problems is solar radiation. The greater amount of memory, the greater chance that radiation will corrupt a bit. ECC minimizes this, but most of the "el cheapo" memory from Pricewatch is not ECC. Call it my daily rant Maybe I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Anyway, best rule of thumb; don't buy more than you really need. If you want to go over 128, try to find a decent justification. Don't go by the total listed in the task manager, look at the "physical memory" section. Available + System Cache = the total memory available for applications. Currently, my total usage is 130MB (of 128MB physical), yet I have 50MB of free physical memory. DrSchmoe

Subject pretty much says everything, but they have a couple updates. One of which specifically increases the compatibility of games on Windows 2000. I guess, no matter how hard Microsoft tries, they still know it is a decent OS for gaming

Once again, it isn't Creative's fault. I hate repeatedly taking their side, but the truth is that only 50% of the Lives sold are of the value variety. It is highly likely that the enhanced code for full Lives and Live Platinums is not yet complete, hence the delay in the driver release. Creative couldn't justify releasing a Live driver that supported only half it's cards. What would they say? "This driver is for all our Live Value customers. The rest of you can wait 3 weeks!" Whereas Dell sells only the Live Value so it made sense to distribute them. Come mid-march, I am sure the Creative drivers will be more feature complete. Plus they may even be a later version than the Dell software. LiveWare 4 is just around the corner...

A common misconception is that OEMs like Creative write drivers. That isn't true. They get the reference drivers from NVidia and then have a chance to customize them. Customizing does not entail changes to the basic driver set. In otherwords, the basic code is exact from what NVidia provided. Creative's customization entials enabling tertiary features such as TV out and their enhanced display panels. In the grand scheme of things, they had many months to write the TV-out code and their custom display tabs. The rest of the time was spent waiting on NVidia.

I tried, and alas the channel was invite only. Guess I am not cool enough