$100 Home Recording Studio

E-MU 0404 Digital Audio System
By Dave Salvator
“The PC has turned media into an active creation activity, instead of just a passive, TV-watching, radio-listening "let-it-wash-over-you" experience. We can make and edit movies. We can doctor digital photos. We can record and remix music.

While you can do basic recording using your motherboard's integrated audio, in most cases the results won't sound especially good. An Audigy 2 sound card has clean enough inputs and outputs to do some home recording, and even supports ASIO, the driver standard for most professional and prosumer audio applications. But it lacks the 1/4-inch jacks you'll want for connecting instruments. If you're ready to get more serious, it's time to leave the world of sound cards behind, and delve into the realm of audio interface cards.

A semantic difference, you say? Not really. Audio interface cards are specifically designed for audio and music production. They usually won't accelerate game audio, and their mixer applications are much more intricate and granular. They also offer up a lot more I/O—both analog and digital. Cards offering 8-in/8-out are typical, and are usually priced at around $400–$500. Also, the software bundles usually come with audio sequencers and wave editors rather than media player applications and games.

Another important difference is the price: Most decent audio interfaces start at $150 and head north from there. Cards like M-Audio's Delta 44, Echo Audio's Mia MIDI and E-MU's 1212M are in this price band, and all represent good entry-level solutions. But E-MU has gone one better. The company has taken its 1212M interface, and trimmed some features from it to produce the 0404, a $99 2-in/2-out (analog) audio interface card that delivers very impressive performance at that price point.

Are you ready to get your groove on and gear up to record all those musical ideas dancing around in your head? Read on to see if the 0404 is the right place to start for you. Continued...

TABLE OF CONTENTS
•	Introduction
•	Guided Tour
•	How We Tested
•	RightMark Audio Analyzer Results
•	SoundForge Noise Floor Results
•	Hands-On Time
•	The Proteus X Synth Software
•	Final Thoughts/What to Buy”

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1753502,00.asp

Return of the Browser Wars

By Jerry Pournelle
July 26, 2004
(Return of the Browser Wars : Page 1 of 1 )
Column 288 (Continued from the Previous Month)

“The Big Question: Internet Explorer

The VX2 spyware scare was one problem. Another was Download.Ject, aka Scob, and called by some The Russian Hack. This exploited vulnerabilities in the Microsoft IIS servers (one reason why Apache has a significant web server market share) to broadcast malware that exploited in turn Internet Explorer vulnerabilities. That was significant because it caused some journalists to advise users to abandon Internet Explorer entirely. Others didn't go that far, but did say that one ought not use Microsoft Internet Explorer as one's default Internet browser. Perhaps the most extreme statement was "The U.S. government's Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) is warning Web surfers to stop using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser."

For those unfamiliar with it, US-CERT "is a partnership between the Department of Homeland Security and the public and private sectors. Established to protect the nation's Internet infrastructure, US-CERT coordinates defense against and responses to cyber attacks across the nation," so a warning from US-CERT is pretty serious, and if they're advising you to "stop using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser," it may be time to do just that.

All of which prompted a call to Microsoft's public relations people, who arranged a telephone interview with two senior program managers on Microsoft's Security team.

Microsoft's Side of the Story

My interview was with Gary Schare, Director of Security Project Management for Windows, and some of his team.

First, regarding CERT advice to drop IE, they said "We haven't seen any such CERT headline. We've seen journalists who report it, but we can't find any such thing." Which prompted me to go do my own search, and they're right: While I see a number of signed editorials and columns stating that this is CERT's advice, I found no URL linking that statement to CERT itself, and my search of CERT didn't turn it up either.

CERT does have a warning entitled "Microsoft Internet Explorer does not properly validate source of redirected frame," and if you scroll down past a number of other suggestions, the last one is

Use a different web browser

There are a number of significant vulnerabilities in technologies relating to the IE domain/zone security model, the DHTML object model, MIME type determination, and ActiveX. It is possible to reduce exposure to these vulnerabilities by using a different web browser, especially when browsing untrusted sites. Such a decision may, however, reduce the functionality of sites that require IE-specific features such as DHTML, VBScript, and ActiveX. Note that using a different web browser will not remove IE from a Windows system, and other programs may invoke IE, the WebBrowser ActiveX control, or the HTML rendering engine (MSHTML).

but that is not quite the same as saying ‘Don't use Internet Explorer,’ and a very long way from ‘CERT says use anything but IE.…’ ”

http://www.byte.com/documents/s=9011/byt1090781086558/0726_pournelle.html?temp=1h6pvBLxoD

Dear IE, I'm leaving you for good

By Robert Vamosi
Senior editor, CNET Reviews
“Dear Internet Explorer:

It's over. Our relationship just hasn't been working for a while, and now, this is it. I'm leaving you for another browser.

I know this isn't a good time--you're down with yet another virus. I do hope you feel better soon--really, I do--but I, too, have to move on with my life. Fact is, in the entire time I've known you, you seem to always have a virus or an occasional worm. You should really see a doctor.

That said, I just can't continue with this relationship any longer. I know you say you'll fix things, that next time it'll go better--but that's what you said the last time--and the time before that. Each time I believed you.

Well, not any longer.…”

http://builder.com.com/5100-6371_14-5455092.html?tag=nl.e601

Google Video: Beta

“Search recent TV programs online.”

Preferences

Google Video Help

http://video.google.com/

Microsoft Cites IP Defense in Blogger Crackdown

By Mary Jo Foley

“On the heels of Apple Computer's attempt to crack down on journalists for allegedly misappropriating trade secrets, some free-speech advocates are worried that Microsoft has launched a similar campaign.

In a Jan. 18 letter it said was issued on behalf of Microsoft, the law firm of Covington & Burling asked the publisher of tech-enthusiast site Engadget.com to remove screenshots of a forthcoming Microsoft operating-system release known as "Windows Mobile 2005." According to the request, Microsoft considers the images to contain "proprietary trade secret information belonging to Microsoft."

Microsoft also requested that two other Windows-focused sites, Neowin.net and Bink.nu, remove related information from their Web sites. Neowin was the first site to publish in early January the alleged screen shots and development schedule for Windows Mobile 2005.

Neowin and Bink removed the Windows Mobile 2005 information at Microsoft's request. (Neowin received a phone request from a Microsoft representative and Bink, an e-mail one from a "Microsoft Internet Investigator," site principal Steven Bink said.)

As of the time this article was published, Engadget publisher Weblogs Inc. still had not removed the Windows Mobile 2005 screen shots and information from its site.

Microsoft did not respond to questions from Microsoft Watch about whether it is stepping up its campaign to limit the publication of information it considers trade secrets.… ”

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/article2/0,1995,1753658,00.asp

Use JavaScript to create a DataGrid control with inline editing

by Greg Griffiths

“Several of my colleagues have been very busy recently working on all manner of ASP.Net applications and components for use within our company. Recently, they demonstrated a DataGrid control that they had developed that allowed in-line editing (see the MSDN Article). After I had congratulated them on a wonderful control, one of the team commented that this kind of functionality would not be possible using only JavaScript—one of my favorite languages—so I decided to see if that was the case, and this article is the story of my journey.

What Functionality do we need?

Looking at the control they had produced, I was able to identify the following items of functionality that I needed to create to complete my challenge:

• Populate a table with data via JavaScript.
• Add sorting functionality.
• Add inline editing functionality.
• Add paging functionality.
• Add functionality to add/delete elements.…”

http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6228_11-5533726.html?tag=nl.e103