Vista SP1 to be supposedly released on the 4th

[djt]

It looks like Vista SP1 might be released a little earlier than expected.

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-news/126386-vista-sp1-release-date.html

[Biohazard]

Let's hope it doesn't turn out like XP SP1, remember that? Total disaster.

[djt]

Let's hope it doesn't turn out like XP SP1, remember that? Total disaster.

I don’t remember it being a disaster, although it’s been so long ago since XP/SP1 that I hardly remember it at all, LOL.

[greggerm]

There are folks out there who have grabbed a leaked copy of a post-RC refresh build, which amounts to the almost-almost final version -

Reports are good from them.

I'm personally waiting for it to go final, then I am going to try to build a slipstreamed Vista install disc, and spend some time next week reinstalling my system from null with Vista SP1. Of course, some folks have also reported that slipstreaming will not be allowed with V. SP1, so we'll see.


-Greg

[Biohazard]

I don’t remember it being a disaster, although it’s been so long ago since XP/SP1 that I hardly remember it at all, LOL.

djt, thats a good thing, lol.

[djt]

There are folks out there who have grabbed a leaked copy of a post-RC refresh build, which amounts to the almost-almost final version -


It wasn’t just leaked; Microsoft has had the “refresh” SP1 available to the public for a while now. I’ve had it installed on Vista Ultimate 64 since it was released without any problems.

[djt]

djt, thats a good thing, lol.

I installed SP1 and SP2 on fresh XP reformats and had no problems that I can remember.

[angels355]

So this will increase performance and stability when running fsx?

[jwenting]

as well as cure cancer, solve the mysteries of ancient Egypt, provide final evidence of the existence of God and ET, and bring peace and harmony to all the world.

[angels355]

Nothing about lunch with the Dallas Cowgirls???? Well then forget it!!

Someone told me that Vista operates, in a manner of speaking in a serial manner instead of parallel, in that if one driver is not working the whole program stops working. Something like that. Something about xp will continue functioning if one driver is not working, but w/ Vista, Vista will just shut down. Does that story sound familiar in any way?

MS went to a lot of trouble in their DRM programming to take a high definition video signal and reduce it down to a low resolution level for display if MS's DRM decides it doesn't like your high definition video disk. As a pilot I take careful care of my eyes, doesn't the idea of purposely displaying a video signal in a reduced resolution format display seem kind of unfriendly? I mean, they want to make sure they get their money, even at the expense of my eyes? According to one article this could happen even if you purchase a genuine Hollywood product, but the DRM simply decides it doesn't like that disk. And in such a case MS went to a great deal of trouble programming Vista so that it will take a high def video and dumb it down to a low resolution picture. Even if it is just a mistake made by DRM while playing a genuine high def disk properly purchased from Hollywood. And my eyes would pay the price for such a DRM mistake. Wouldn't it have been more friendly, inviting, to spend that time programming so that Vista would take an ordinary DVD disk and boost it's display resolution as much as possible despite it not being a hi def disk, and that genuine hi def disks would also have maximized resolution and high fidelity, for the benefit of the viewer and health of his/her eyes? When pc's first came out, their monitors did not have flat screens, they were rounded, this resulted in a specific type of eye impairment. Yet Vista went to all this trouble to program video to display at reduced resolution even if it is a mistake made by DRM. We sure better cough up whatever money they're asking for to appease them to protect the health of our eyes.

This sp1 looks like it makes sweeping changes. Including closing some hacking loopholes, as if someone like me would ever come up with such an idea. And denotes HD drives like blue-ray or hd dvd as HD drives in My Computer or hardware profiles, which is important as high def video disks are the single reason for DRM, which is where MS wanted to grab hold of the market. Do you think that legacy drivers will be continued to be supported indefinitely in Vista, or in the future could legacy driver support be dropped, like 98/se/me drivers were taken down from hp's website? Could the very tight control over Vista drivers by MS result in the future in the dropping of legacy drivers for Vista, in other words deactivated with a wave of the hand? I just ask because with a wave of their hand all 98/se/me drivers were removed from the hp website, 95/NT drivers remained up, but not 98/se/me. It was pure luck that I was able to keep using my old HP printers, 3 of them, as I either had the drivers, or found the original driver disk, or in one case before the complete corruption of one of my hdd's. Vista has the drivers for all three of these printers built in now, but because these printers were built for 98/se/me and are older, I wonder if these built in drivers in Vista could be discontinued with an update? I mean, once bitten twice shy.

Vista is so constraining and controlling that Linux is no longer an idle curiosity, I am becoming a Linux user for some applications instead of immediately jumping at the chance to buy Vista. Some of this restrictiveness seems like it would be unpleasant, which is weird because they're asking that a customer spend as much as over $400 US for it.

[jwenting]

Maybe for US users the cowgirls will be available...

Don't blame Microsoft for HP removing support for Windows 98, they're different companies...

I'm ALL in favour of Windows blocking pirated content where it detects it. Might bring some people around to actually pay for their music and movies.

[xxmikexx]

I'm with you, jwenting. It is of course not "internetly correct" :) to take this position but I agree with you nonetheless.

People point to DRM technology and say "blemish" in order to justify evading DRM. This, of course, is moral hypocrisy.

[jwenting]

I think both of us are old and wise enough that we can be "internetly incorrect" without loosing face with our "friends"...

[angels355]

Mike and jewenting,

Don't blame MS because HP is a different company? Read this:

"Microsoft has stopped providing and supporting certain files related specifically to Windows 98 SE, and this change affects all technology companies. HP, along with other technology companies, is no longer able to use selected components in support of Windows 98SE, which has an impact on our software strategy for Windows 98, Windows 98 SE, and Windows Me. HP will continue to provide other selected HP software and applications that do not depend on Windows 98 SE components for the foreseeable future."

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01080344&lc=en&cc=us&dlc=en&product=58710&lang=en

So MS took action, leading HP to take down ALL their library of 98/se/me drivers. As far as I know nvidia and ati have not done that. I think that was a crummy move by both MS and HP, and affects my opinion about their new products. I took a look at one of HP's new products, it had a big sales ticket on it, do they expect me to jump to buy it based on my past experience with their policies? My old HP printers were fairly fancy too. I think nvidia and ati are OK, and have especially liked the drivers from ATI. I have had some problems with nvidia drivers. These factors influence my buying habits. MS was influential in HP taking down those drivers. It's a known fact that companies promote accelerated obsolescence, if it gets too aggressive then customers sue like as in the accelerated obsolescence suit against Apple; customers don't like accelerated obsolescence because overnight their perfectly good products are rendered junk, companies on the other hand like it because this "promotes" or even forces customers to give up and purchase new products thereby boosting company sales. Not a very nice sales strategy. How about this, the nice guy company approach, support old products at the minimum level like allowing the drivers to remain posted for download, thereby building confidence and trust in those companies products, and that trust thereby making new sales. Instead of for example choosing Linux plus Canon or something like that.

I mention this with regards to Vista because MS put pressure on hardware vendors to fall in line with their DRM program, and their new driver management system has the capability of negating drivers from vendors they don't like in the future, or what worries me is if with a sweep of their hand if they might negate all old legacy hardware drivers in Vista. MS told businesses that Vista will run on their old equipment, but in the future will they negate those old drivers on Vista. After all MS and HP didn't have much of a heart with regards to 98/se/me drivers. The HP drivers for win 2000 and 95 and nt are separately still up. Strange to me that win 95 has more priority than 98/se/me, seems to me that win 95 is older than 98/se/me.

Any way, I ask questions, because many of these new products cost a lot of money. And such issues affect my buying.

The quality of the Vista SP1 patch, and the high quality and extra features of the PMDG 747-400X for FSX makes me seriously consider these products. But I'm a frugal shopper, and I don't spend my money frivolously, and very significant financial resources went into these past legacy products which still run perfectly, exceptionally well, and the lack of consideration from these companies on those old expensive products IS something I consider when shopping for new products. I walked by an HP product the other night with a big price tag, after their canning the HP 98/se/me drivers for their 98/se/me printers, my first response is "Ha!" Big negative opinion on buying their new products, along with hesitation over Vista. Easy sale for Vista Ultimate or Home Premium full package standalone retail version? Nnnnnope!

Hey, BTW, my two friends, I'm glad that the two of you are getting along so well once again!

Regarding DRM, and DRM programming that dumbs down the video image for HD disks that Vista doesn't like, I was referring to real, legitimate HD or Blueray HD disks purchased legitimately. There has been much discussion that DRM doesn't always recognize all disks, or HD versions. So I'm saying, rather than take it out on my eyes, after all the money I've spent hypothetically, and to a great extent my livelihood depends on my eyes for various careers, why couldn't they dumb down the sound instead or some other method, use Rich Little's voice doing Nixon over Talia Shire's voice or something like that, why take it out on my eyes after all the money spent on such a system? And when the health of my eyes pays for such products? To me it is just corporate callousness. All they are concerned about is extracting every last cent, pushing very high prices, and they would prefer if you're not happy with the product then don't whine about it.

Just being the salt of the Earth. Now if I can just get you two to agree on the best theory, String Theory, or Loop Quantum Gravity, to reach the unification of physics theories toward The Theory of Everything! Heeheee! I'm kidding!

[xxmikexx]

My son is the science fiction author and science reporter Wil McCarthy, now turned high tech entrepreneur. He once observed that string theory is a piece of 25th Century physics that happened to fall into the 21st Century. :)

[angels355]

My son is the science fiction author and science reporter Wil McCarthy, now turned high tech entrepreneur. He once observed that string theory is a piece of 25th Century physics that happened to fall into the 21st Century. :)

Hi Mike,

That is really cool. I think that sci-fi is becoming simply everyday life. Have you read Alvin and Heidi Toffler's books, they are incredible, I'm a big fan. What your son said about String Theory is correct, and LQG (Loop Quantum Gravity) theorists say that w/ LQG that like seeing a fish darting through dark waters, they are occasionally getting glimpses of what The Theory of Everything is going to be like. They feel that it will arrive sooner than expected. Before it was hoped for in 50 years if we're really lucky, however w/ LQG they are hoping it will be sooner.

I studied a little bit of M Theory also, and M Theory was mentioned in Stephen Hawking's book "The Universe in a Nutshell". M Theory is simple to understand if you just envision that strings can be represented by a rolled up membrane or "brane"--BRRRRAINS! NEED! MORE! BRRRRRAINS!! Oh excuse me, just felt some hunger pangs there for a minute.

I like LQG, I think they have the answer, and it's more sophisticated in my opinion. One of their leaders stresses that his people hang out at both camps String and LQG, because that promotes better discovery/progress. He says that in past centuries scientific giants hardly ever spoke to each other, so imagine how we might have advanced if they had. String and LCQ and other theorists get really angry with each other, and refuse to speak to one another as I understand, but this one group of LQG people make it part of their strategery to hang out at both camps to learn more.

Who would have believed that Star Trek's "Transporter" is based on scientific fact and has already been demonstrated (photons)? But William Shattner commented about the transporter this way, "WE MADE IT ALL UP!! THERE!! ARE YOU SATISFIED???"

I just hope one day that I'll be able to afford cable internet!! And one day there'll be a new Star Trek series, and X-Files will return to tv, and several other nerd things!