OT: VISTA

[Phoenix-D]

SE4 will run under WINE or Cedega; I don't think they've gotten SE5 working yet.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

That was funny.

Anyway, new games will probably run on Vista. Which is why you use Virtual PC for the old games.

But I'm just being contrary.

[NullAshton]

The main reason why you shouldn't upgrade to Vista mainly seems to be the system requirements... if you're getting a new computer anyway, no sense in getting XP instead.

[PvK]

It's also the reason you should never upgrade to Vista, because the requirements are components with super-duper-evil copy protection features.

[Atrocities]

I wonder what SE V would look like running DX10, on a VI****A OS?

[Fyron]

narf poit chez BOOM said:
Anyway, new games will probably run on Vista. Which is why you use Virtual PC for the old games.

Any game that came out in the last few years and has high system demands that does not run in Vista for whatever reason will almost certainly not run in Virtual PC. You can run much older games fine, as well as games with low requirements, but fat chance running something like half-life 2 in a hardware emulator.

[Atrocities]

That is a very good point to make Fyron. One that many of use really need to consider if and when we are faced with having to buy a new system. I am going to go buy a new copy of XP Pro later this month to have it on hand. I don't really think VI****A is going to be pre DX10 game player friendly for a good long time if ever.

[PvK]

Atrocities said:
I wonder what SE V would look like running DX10, on a VI****A OS?

If you're super duper extremely lucky, it'd look exactly like it does on Windows 98. Otherwise, it might look and sound blurry, or flicker from blurry to sharp, or censor any images it thought might possibly belong to a major corporation, as its impressive Digital Rights Management kicks in and out.

[Tim_Ward]

Vista's first security hole discovered: two days after release.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6320865.stm

Vista has speech recognition hole

Vista was launched to consumers on Tuesday

Microsoft has admitted that speech recognition features in Vista could be hijacked so that a PC tells itself to delete files or folders.

Vista can respond to vocal commands and concern has been raised about malicious audio on websites or sent via e-mail.

In one scenario outlined by users an MP3 file of voice instructions was used to tell the PC to delete documents.

Microsoft said the exploit was "technically possible" but there was no need to worry.

The firm has pointed out that in order for the flaw to be exploited the speech recognition feature would need to be activated and configured and both microphone and speakers would have to be switched on.
There are also additional barriers that would make an attack difficult
Microsoft security researcher


"The exploit scenario would involve the speech recognition feature picking up commands through the microphone such as 'copy', 'delete', 'shutdown', etc. and acting on them," a Microsoft security researcher wrote on the team's official blog.

Some Vista users have already tested the exploit and were able to delete files and empty the trash can so that the documents were not retrievable.

Microsoft has said that even if the machine was primed to accept voice commands it would be unlikely the user would not be in the room to hear the file with malicious instructions being played.

The firm also said that voice commands could not be used for privileged functions such as creating a new user or formatting a drive.

"There are also additional barriers that would make an attack difficult including speaker and microphone placement, microphone feedback, and the clarity of the dictation," wrote the Microsoft researcher.

While speech recognition was a feature of Windows XP, in Vista the use has been widened.

"While we are taking the reports seriously and investigating them accordingly I am confident in saying that there is little if any need to worry about the effects of this issue on your new Windows Vista installation," said the researcher.

'tis not a critical hole or anything, but it is amusing in light of Microsoft's MOST SECURE OS EVAH claims.

[PDF]

1 GB RAM seems low, with XP it's a minimum so I suppose that with Vi$ta you need double that ...