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Comment Re:Buying boxes (Score 2, Informative) 181

Broadband Reports has frequent posts about this very scenario. From what I've read, many times after system upgrades Comcast will leave many channels un-encrypted for testing purposes for months at a time, so you're receiving many Clear-QAM (unencrypted digital cable) that may not necessarily be there permanently. Often, these channels will move around and require a re-scan, disappear, be replaced with other channels, etc. The number of channels that are un-encrypted may vary from neighborhood to neighborhood. In the end, Comcast is only required to send local over-the-air channels unencrypted to your TV set. Otherwise, Comcast isn't responsible for other channels they may be inadvertently leaving "open" for people to see. Always check to see what the official listings are for your area, and those are the channels you will receive without the inconsistencies you mentioned in your post.

Comment JAMF Casper Suite. (Score 1) 460

If you need to deploy, maintain, and manage a medium to large number of Macs in an enterprise environment, Casper Suite by JAMF Software is the way to go. Hands down the most comprehensive suite out there for Macs.

Comment Repeat After Me.. (Score 1) 276

Repeat after me...

Apple is not using ActiveSync in Snow Leopard.

Exchange support in Snow Leopard uses EWS to connect to the Exchange Server.

EWS (Exchange Web Services) is not WebDAV!

The number of misconceptions perpetrated on this thread make me wonder how many people have actually looked at either Exchange Server 2007/2010 or Mail.app in Snow Leopard.

That is all.

Comment Re:Confusion (Score 1) 334

So I have cable with a QAM tuner TV. The guy at Circuit City said I could get digital cable without having to rent a box from the cable company with it. Turns out, the only digital channels I get are the ones that come in over the air. Is/was this supposed to change on Feb 17?

Nope. This switch over was for over-the-air only, and remains so even with this new legislation. Your first mistake was listening to the guy at Circuit City. There's a really good chance that most cable companies will never send anything over in Clear QAM other than your over-the-air stations. Everything else will most likely remain encrypted, and only received with a cable box or cablecard compatible set top box or TV.

I've heard (but not sure about) there is a 5 year moratorium on cable companies turning off their analog (cable-ready) signals. Who knows what will happen after that point.

Comment Opera Mini... (Score 1) 225

Shouldn't this lawsuit be against Opera Mini, since they reformat through their own proxy server? As far as I know, the iPhone uses WebKit and does not modify pages in any way, other than scaling to screen size.

I think these patents that specify "hand held device" are going to be extinct soon. The iPhone OS and Android are full blown operating systems, and the hardware they run on are more like handheld computers than anything else.
Biotech

Merck To Halt Lobbying For Vaccine 544

theodp writes "Reacting to a furor from some parents, advocacy groups, and public health experts, Merck said yesterday that it would stop lobbying state legislatures to require the use of its new cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil, which acts against strains of the sexually-transmitted human papilloma virus. The $400, 3-shot regimen was approved by the FDA in June. Later that month, a federal advisory panel recommended that females 11-26 years old be vaccinated. The governor of Texas has already signed an executive order making its use mandatory for schoolgirls."
Upgrades

Vista Upgrades Require Presence of Old OS 561

kapaopango writes "Ars Technica is reporting that upgrade versions of Windows Vista Home Basic, Premium, and Starter Edition cannot be installed on a PC unless Windows XP or Windows 2000 is already installed. This is a change from previous versions of Windows, which only required a valid license key. This change has the potential to make disaster recovery very tedious. The article says: 'For its part, Microsoft seems to be confident that the Vista repair process should be sufficient to solve any problems with the OS, since otherwise the only option for disaster recovery in the absence of backups would be to wipe a machine, install XP, and then upgrade to Vista. This will certainly make disaster recovery a more irritating experience.'"

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