March 28th: It started with a C&D (cease and desist) letter on their forums…
Daniel_K:
We are aware that you have been assisting owners of our Creative sound cards for some time now, by providing unofficial driver packages for Vista that deliver more of the original functionality that was found in the equivalent XP packages for those sound cards. In principle we don’t have a problem with you helping users in this way, so long as they understand that any driver packages you supply are not supported by Creative. Where we do have a problem is when technology and IP owned by Creative or other companies that Creative has licensed from, are made to run on other products for which they are not intended. We took action to remove your thread because, like you, Creative and its technology partners think it is only fair to be compensated for goods and services. The difference in this case is that we own the rights to the materials that you are distributing. By enabling our technology and IP to run on sound cards for which it was not originally offered or intended, you are in effect, stealing our goods. When you solicit donations for providing packages like this, you are profiting from something that you do not own. If we choose to develop and provide host-based processing features with certain sound cards and not others, that is a business decision that only we have the right to make.
Although you say you have discontinued your practice of distributing unauthorized software packages for Creative sound cards we have seen evidence of them elsewhere along with donation requests from you. We also note in a recent post of yours on these forums, that you appear to be contemplating the release of further packages. To be clear, we are asking you to respect our legal rights in this matter and cease all further unauthorized distribution of our technology and IP. In addition we request that you observe our forum rules and respect our right to enforce those rules. If you are in any doubt as to what we would consider unacceptable then please request clarification through one of our forum moderators before posting.
Phil O’Shaughnessy
VP Corporate Communications
Creative Labs Inc.
From there, chaos ensued. Not only did just about every major tech site pick up on this story, but Read more…
Nov 10 2009 note: If you’re using Windows 7, do not try to install the hotfix – it’s for Vista only. However, you should be able to enter the registry key under Windows 7 – I did, and there weren’t any negative effects I could see although I have no idea if it’s providing any benefit (no way to test it at the moment), so feel free to leave a comment if you’ve created the key, and note whether you saw any benefit in games. Make sure you write down where you enter the registry key in case something buggers up so that you can remove the key if necessary.
If you just want the files asap, skip the rest of the read and scroll down to the end.
While browsing through the World of Warcraft Tech Support forums, I came across this thread which has something of a fix for high pings. For the technical side as to how and why this works, I suggest you read the thread. The short version is that Read more…
MTS (Manitoba Telecom Services) is one of the largest providers of both high-speed and dial-up internet access in Manitoba.
Unfortunately, if you use them, and try to send mail through a mail server other than their own, you might run into problems. Read more…
If there is one company that could really compete with Microsoft in the operating system market, it’s probably Google. Whether it would be worth it for them or not, I don’t know, and I would imagine they’d probably have to go with a Google flavor of Linux, but they do have a few things going for them.
They have the Google brand name. A problem I think any new OS developer faces is that no matter how good their product may be, unless they’re a giant, many people will be hesistant to switch over. After all, if Microsoft Windows is working fine, how can any individual or company be sure that a new OS isn’t going to cause them massive headaches. Even if it’s cheaper or free, is it really worth the risk? Since people are familar with Google, know how to use Google’s services, and in general are not confronted by issue after issue with Google’s services already, I think people would be more likely to “trust” that a Google OS isn’t going to leave them with a bad experience.
Read more…
Before I begin, a little primer on how wireless internet access works here in Manitoba. The ISP (internet service provider) puts a big honking antennae up somewhere. You then have an antennae or “dish” installed on your roof/garage/tower, or another area high enough that something like a bus passing your house won’t knock out your internet connection. That antennae is hooked up to something resembling a cable modem, which then hooks up to your computer/router/etc. Now these are both 2-way transmitter/receivers, which means you don’t need to also use a phone line (the way satellite systems work). They’re also (surprisingly) pretty low-latency. What this means is that you gamers out there can play your online games without getting “lag”. Now on to my story… Read more…
