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The service is a "network DVR", basically moving the DVR capabilities from a box sitting in the user's home to a server at the cable company. IANAL, but from what I understand that's exactly how they won the lawsuit, by showing that it matched feature-for-feature with a home DVR.

They either tend to be dead on arrival or fail at some point many years or months down the line.

The data that Google released from their server farms indicates that the "bathtub curve" isn't shaped anything like what people used to think — infant mortality isn't very significant, and drive failure is more or less random between 2 - 5 years old, during that time, drives don't fail at higher rate the older they get.

FWIW, I can see the video in the Netherlands.

Here's an article I could recall that might offer some insight into the matter:

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/should-youtube-pay-more-154-million-rickrolls-11.ars

"At a recent press conference in London, the cowriter of Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" said that the song had been viewed more than 154 million times on YouTube—thanks to Rickrolling—but that he had received a grand total of £11."

Not to be pessimistic, but I just don't get the whole netbook fad. I can basically say everything you did about a larger netbook to regular netbooks compared to say an iPhone or Android or Blackberry. These are pocket sized, often have highly optimized apps for a given task (such as a bus schedule) and only require carrying around one device that chances are I'd have in my pocket anyway.

I'm guessing I'm not the only one who thinks this way either... http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/01/the-iphone-and-ipod-touch-apples-netbook.ars

"Seriously, what's the point?" :)

I mean, sure you could say "what if I have to code bla bla bla on the go..." well, to that I'd say I'd just rather have my real 15" laptop if I have to do serious work. Sure, maybe heavy usage on an iPhone will diminish the battery much faster but phone batteries will surely advance to the point this no longer is much advantage in light of access to a regular recharge.

I see netbooks sticking around, and like their somewhat successful effort at bringing Linux mainstream, but as smartphones advance I can't see them being much more than a niche market. Although I'm not an analyst, my iPhone already does more than enough tricks for my on-the-go computing needs.

Haven't we been saying this for, like, ten years. The fact that an increasing number of consumers are becoming aware of said tactics doesn't seem to have:

a) impacted on those tactics

b) changed legislative backing for the MPAA

c) reduced political complicity in the whole sorry affair

Sure it will change eventually, but soon?

Assuming that all of the relevant discs were provided along with the hardware, that would conflict with the right of first sale, which can not be licensed away by any EULA, at least in the United States.

WGA Secret is that it is Spyware and Microsoft is sued over WGA Spyware complaints and Tool is invented to remove WGA Spyware.

I guess that with the attitude they have, we will have to push the Year of the Linux Desktop a few more years ahead. :/

That is the only difference that matters as equal crimes will be treated differently in different countries.

You must have missed the verdict. What TPB case showed us is that different countries' laws are pretty much the same after all. Some of us might like to think there's no international consensus on this, but there is.

Since Ray did not answer you right away, I will answer you from a non-involved, non-expert, and non-lawyer point of view:

There has been a lot of back-and-forth in this case. RIAA (as I shall label the plaintiff's side) made claims, defendant (Tenenbaum) made counter-claims. Tenenbaum amended counter-claims. RIAA moved to have counter-claims dismissed. Tenenbaum filed "Opposition to Plaintiff's Motion to Dismiss Counterclaims". RIAA file a memorandum in response, to support claims for dismissal of those counterclaims.

And, as Kurt Vonnegut wrote: "So it goes."

If you want to read all the legalese, you can find it here: Beckerman Legal, Sony v. Tenenbaum

I am not about to make predictions: I am not a judge and I have known judges make some strange and seemingly unreasonable decisions. But I find the arguments presented by Tenenbaum (which I think Ray Beckerman may have had a hand in) to be well-argued and compelling, especially compared to the material and arguments brought to bear by the RIAA.

After all, as Nate Anderson wrote for Ars Technica: "... as long as the music labels continue filing their suits, stories about how the RIAA is a lying collection of lying liars (who lie) aren't going to die ..."

Since QT 4.5 is not LGPL...how about re-creating its interface using QT like folks at VideoLan did. This would go a great way in improving the user experience.

Welcome to last year. http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2008/08/nokia-helps-port-firefox-to-qt.ars

They also compare cellulosic ethanol and other non-corn options. Ars Technica has a better writeup.

There have been contradictory rulings about this. Many courts have ruled that at least in criminal cases people can be forced to decrypt their hard drives. See for example http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/03/court-self-incrimination-privilege-stops-with-passwords.ars

Have there been any rulings in civil cases?

There have been contradictory rulings about this. Many courts have ruled that at least in criminal cases people can be forced to decrypt their hard drives. See for example http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/03/court-self-incrimination-privilege-stops-with-passwords.ars

This will undoubtedly induce all sorts of railing about both the government and climate, but this step was actually recommended by the National Academies of Science, and I'm happy that it's being seriously considered. The NAS issued in a report that, distilled down, says that we're already paying for climate science, but the info generated by that work isn't reaching the people who need it most, like the ones that have to manage water supplies in the desert southwest. When those people do find the research, it's typically not structured in a way that's especially useful to them. (For a more elaborate summary of the report, see here - full disclosure, i wrote that).

So, this is largely an attempt to take information we're already producing (the government has paid for climate research for a long time through NOAA and the NSF) and make it useful.

The foundation for a National Climate Service already is in place.

The Prism Group at Oregon State University has been mapping in climate in the US for a long time.

http://prism.oregonstate.edu/

So, maybe what needs to is better coordination of all the data sources through NOAA

This will undoubtedly induce all sorts of railing about both the government and climate, but this step was actually recommended by the National Academies of Science, and I'm happy that it's being seriously considered. The NAS issued in a report that, distilled down, says that we're already paying for climate science, but the info generated by that work isn't reaching the people who need it most, like the ones that have to manage water supplies in the desert southwest. When those people do find the research, it's typically not structured in a way that's especially useful to them. (For a more elaborate summary of the report, see here - full disclosure, i wrote that).

So, this is largely an attempt to take information we're already producing (the government has paid for climate research for a long time through NOAA and the NSF) and make it useful.

Are these your words in this thread, or were you being impersonated?
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/6/ubb.x?q=Y&a=tpc&s=50009562&f=12009443&m=545092007

Then I broke down and got a 360, wii, and ps3. My gaming itch is not scratched on a 50 inch screen from my lazy boy.

A much more tangible side effect? I'm off the upgrade mill. I don't have to spend money on new video cards every year, more ram, bigger processors, etc.

So you spent at least $850 on console hardware ($200 + $250 + $400) that's less powerful than a complete gaming PC that costs less than $500 (including case/PSU, not including OS). Of course, games/experiences differ between consoles and PCs, but current consoles don't have the power to play Crisis at 1900x1200 like today's $500 PC can. And upgrades nowadays only require a $100 CPU and $100 GPU only if you want to play at much higher quality/resolution than the consoles can offer.

I'm sure consoles work better for many people's needs/wants, but the "upgrade mill" is getting less expensive for those that don't require resolutions/quality that go way beyond consoles. Personally, I prefer a modest $600-$700 HTPC that can play most current games at around 720p.

Perhaps someone forgot about an article that was on here a week or so ago about the modern Mac-based botnet that's currently floating around? Not particularly vulnerabilities in the OS, but it's the idea that Macs are bulletproof that allows social engineering to be a very successful attack vector against Mac users. Remember that a lot of viruses even in the Windows world still require the user to manually launch them.

What's incredibly funny is that the first result for "Mac botnet" in a Google search is a 2006 "Mac Geekery" blog entry containing a rant about how Macs will never constitute a botnet. =D Such foresight! Such fanboism!

That novelty band, Presidents of the United States of America, already has a streaming music app: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/02/bands-bypass-itunes-by-streaming-music-through-iphone-apps.ars

The Presidents of the United States of America isn't a novelty band.

Most fans don't care about where their money goes; have no inclination to design artwork for you; and might be a little confused about why your app wants their credit card number.

Most fans. Nine Inch Nails fans are not most fans.

That novelty band, Presidents of the United States of America, already has a streaming music app: http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/02/bands-bypass-itunes-by-streaming-music-through-iphone-apps.ars

Most fans don't care about where their money goes; have no inclination to design artwork for you; and might be a little confused about why your app wants their credit card number.

They don't need to shell out billions to build their own plant, just funding to have a 3rd party foundry build thier chips. Most manufacturers (intel, nvidia etc) sell off their old fabs when after a few generations for RAM production etc. Hell AMD recently spun off its fabrication division due to lack of funds. Now they just contract to (globalfoundries?) for their chips. http://arstechnica.com/hardware/news/2008/10/and-then-there-was-one-amd-spins-off-foundry.ars Wish I knew what kind of price penalty you take by having another company handle that stuff for you in several quantities of say 10,000 - 100,000 and 1,000,000 chips. I'll bet if you make bulk orders it isnt bad, fabs are probably just happy to keep the machines running before they're obsolete.

The following is taken from http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2006/04/6662.ars [Previous incidents where the recording industry sued demonstrably innocent or dead people haven't pushed the lawyers to perfection quite yet. A family in Rome, GA, (one of the 235 defendants) was very surprised when the local newspaper contacted them to ask about the file sharing lawsuit in which they were implicated: "I don't understand this," said James Walls. "How can they sue us when we don't even have a computer?" The RIAA are going after anyone and everyone in an attempt not to punish pirates, but to scare everyone into falling into line. Pirate bay trial being a perfect example of this (uses the same technology as google in the same way, but just without the money behind them).

Electricity is charged for by the amount of energy delivered because it costs money to produce energy. It doesn't cost money to produce electrons. Electricity providers are charging for what costs money to produce.

Bandwidth is charged for by data rate because it costs money to produce bandwidth. It doesn't cost money to produce bytes. Internet providers are already charging for what costs money to produce.

Ars has ~internet service 301~ for a really detailed look at the absurdity of some of the parent post's premises.

The irony is that the last thing the corporate retail isp's want is to have bandwidth charged for as the commodity it is. It's what they're desperately trying to escape.

arstechnica 2008 year end report in ipv4 implies that 4% is actually a pretty big chunk ... not that I think GM/MIT/etc. are stupid enough to just give the IPs back.

This think tank's claims are pure garbage. You all need to read this article from arstechnica about how the peak and average load on the internet backbone has actually dropped over the last couple of years. http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2008/04/exaflood-not-happening.ars

There's a fine line between [citation needed] and wanting someone else to do your homework for you...

http://www.greenlightnc.com/about/faq/

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=14934

http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070810_002683.html

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/twc-without-data-caps-internet-upgrades-now-in-doubt.ars

This isn't an exhaustive background on the subject, but it's enough to point you in the right direction. Most of these links are available by googling "greenlight isp". Most of these links, and more like them, have been posted either in this /. article's comments or in the article that ran a few days ago on basically the same subject.


((Googling "Hetch Hetchy" or "Raker Act scandal" also makes for some interesting reading along the same lines))

Well, there's this from 2007. And from 2004. I doubt it will change. You are right though, there was a recent statement - I believe from some EU group saying we're being pretty hypocritical and we should not be making internet based gambling illegal. I finally found the article... Here it is.

Well, there's this from 2007. And from 2004. I doubt it will change. You are right though, there was a recent statement - I believe from some EU group saying we're being pretty hypocritical and we should not be making internet based gambling illegal. I finally found the article... Here it is.

Well, there's this from 2007. And from 2004. I doubt it will change. You are right though, there was a recent statement - I believe from some EU group saying we're being pretty hypocritical and we should not be making internet based gambling illegal. I finally found the article... Here it is.

Well, there's this from 2007. And from 2004. I doubt it will change. You are right though, there was a recent statement - I believe from some EU group saying we're being pretty hypocritical and we should not be making internet based gambling illegal. I finally found the article... Here it is.

Redhat and Novell both do a lot of development, true, but don't overlook the "look and feel" improvements that Ubuntu has pushed. The Linux desktop only started really getting cohesive when Ubuntu came on the scene. You can't as easily say "Look how many kernel commits are from @redhat.com!" with Ubuntu, but it really has fostered community and a lot of improvement in the user interface and integration arena. Little things like making screen nicer for most people. The features have always existed, they're just now easier for more people to get at. Don't be so quick to write off Ubuntu... it's like saying John Carmack is the only person at id Software who matters. He sure as hell may do the most important core stuff, but he's not doing all the modeling and texture generation and storyboarding and so on.

I'd read this thread in it's entirety before going with the prevalent "Us vs Them".

Thanks to the AC who said he found access to the paper via Google, I finally managed to read it again. It was available the whole time here but the download button does nothing but flash the abstract. You have to be awake to read the fine print that says "Click Location Below to Start Download". Then I just clicked the first of the 5 buttons and down came the pdf.

There was a brief reference to the Napster case in the paper, a citation in favour of the judge for giving credence to due process concerns about grossly excessive statutory damage awards in copyright cases.

To the AC and principal respondent of my first post who say that the judge is unlikely to be aware of "some obscure paper" to which I referenced, I would suggest that judges would be aware of the latest developments of thought on copyright law as much as we here on Slashdot would be aware of the latest developments in technology. Of course, that is just an assumption on my part, and I have no way of knowing that.

I would also like to point out a very interesting blog from two years ago that I just ran across that has direct bearing on the RealDVD Legal Battle. FAIR USE Act analysis: DMCA reform left on the cutting room floor"

Finally, I just want to say that in my opinion, RealNetworks deserves our support on this issue, as it is defending against an attack on fair use, and the outcome of this trial may end up redefining fair use for better or for worse.

No, I won't virtualize WIN/Outlook. No, I won't run 2 desktops. No, the Exchange server is not going to be replaced with insight or kroupware or any other open source replacement.

Have you tried 9.04's experimental support for Exchange's MAPI protocol in the Evolution email client? It's not perfect yet, but if it works for you, you might be able to ditch Windows.

Have you tried Stacks again after the 10.5.2 update (came out in Feb 2008)? Just have your folder with a large number of items display as a list. Works great and has turned me from a Dock hater into a Dock lover.

Yah, that's what I meant when I said parenthetically that the stacks behavior has gotten better in an update.

And I don't understand your complaint about Spaces. It got a major fix with 10.5.3 (came out in May 2008). You can see all Spaces and what windows are where by hitting F8 (you can change which key to press in Preferences).

I don't want to hit F8, I want to just look, it's easier and faster. A normal pager usually pages window location every so often and draws little rectangles and maybe icons showing which windows are on what desktop. That way, you just look over and figure out what desktop you're on, and what desktop you want to be based on the window arrangements. By hitting F8, not only is it an extra key stroke, but it takes you away from your current desktop. If you're used to spaces, you probably don't even notice it, but the unix way that I'm used to seems more efficient and comfortable.

As far as the speed thing goes, 10.5 is very fast on my 12" G4. That's running at 1.33GHz with only 768GB. The only time it slows down is when more than one crappy Flash animation tries to run at a time.

Benchmarks here. Leopard is slower than Tiger on all G5 and only the 64 bit version is faster than Tiger on the Intel Macs. I seem to recall that which version is faster 64 biut or 32 bit depends on what kind of benchmark you're doing but pretty much every benchmark I've seen shows that Tiger is faster on PPC chips.

I'm not saying you are wrong, but that your anecdotes just don't match up with my experience and you may just need to try things again since they've been updated.

These aren't huge complaints, and maybe that since I'm a long time OS X user (since 10.0 beta) I expect too much out of Apple, but the fact is that Leopard doesn't totally blow Tiger out of the water is just not what I'm used to from a company whose OSes got faster on the same hardware from 10.0 beta to 10.0 to 10.1 to 10.2 to 10.3 to 10.4.

Found this while doing random searches about Time Warner. Makes for interesting fodder when they spout that pipe costs are skyrocketing when in fact their costs are tiny and dropping all the time.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/twc-without-data-caps-internet-upgrades-now-in-doubt.ars

It does seems like it from the few working experiences that we have around the world [1,2]. I hope this is realized that we do need to guarentee a public network, maybe along the private one but nonetheless a good public network!

We need ISP agnostic fiber to the homes, now!

For those in Canada (note the "eh" in the title :P), give your voice below, the CRTC is asking for advise (for what it's worth...):

http://isppractices.econsultation.ca/ (english)

http://pratiquesfsi.econsultation.ca/ (franÃais)

[1]. http://cis471.blogspot.com/2009/04/why-is-connectivty-in-stockholm-so-much.html

[2]. http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/shocker-aussies-to-build-own-open-access-fiber-backbone.ars

Although not mentioned on the article, I am damn sure that the guys on iSuppli will be thinking something like 'OMG how can they do business with such a high material cost?'. 50% looks tooooooo high to me, and I am damn sure that they are selling it for a loss.

Believe me, iSuppli did many, many, and many work something like this before, and their purpose is to understand how those companies operate.

It's no secret that material cost is only a tiny fraction of the retail price on this kind of high-tech business. Screaming socialism on this kind of article is completely laughable.

I get a little tired of this silliness of "Oh Windows is unfixably hackable!" That shows an amazing ignorance of computer security. Good admins realize that there is no such thing as perfect security, and no system that can't be broken in to. So the answer isn't the hunt for the perfect system, the answer is defense in depth. You secure your systems and network on multiple levels, and you keep an active watch on what happens. You take proactive steps to keep things secure, you don't just sit back and say "Well my OS is invincible."

It is the same basic philosophy you see in physical security. Good physical security doesn't come from trying to have a single unbreakable defense, it comes from layers.

The crowing on about Macs really makes me think of a home analogy: The Mac types have decided security comes from living in a gated community away from the "rabble". They pay to live in their special enclave, and figure the exclusivity keeps them safe. Over all, it does, they are a smaller target. However they are lax on their security because of this, they leave doors unlocked, valuable laying around and so on. However the security is all in appearances, it isn't real. Finally, someone decides to hit the community, and simply goes off road and bypasses the gate guard. They then have free run, because of the laxness of the users.

Me? I take the bad neighborhood view, regardless of OS. Security comes from a host firewall, and a network firewall, and a virus scanner, and an IDS, and keeping the system patched, and a good password, and running as a deprivileged users and so on. No one of those things is what makes security good, it is the more of them you do. It is a defense in depth, so that a single failure doesn't have wide spread implications.

So if your security is switching to Macs, well have fun then. Best you DON'T encourage others to join you though, since your security is all in remaining small.

I think they ARE aware of that. After a while she starts defending the guy, not unlike the pro-MS posters here on Slashdot that you swear must be shills except they're probably not actually getting paid. Seriously, those people just can't understand that Microsoft is not your buddy, when you stick up for Microsoft like a loyal little sycophant it's not like they are capable of appreciating it, they are a mindless faceless corporation without any sort of feeling.

I think you're confusing MS fanboys with people who like to point out inconvenient facts. Some uninformed people start ranting about some DRM in Vista or other untrue crap and how can you label the people refuting them arguing facts as MS fanboys? There's a lot of stuff to bash MS on, there's no need to make up BS and then call the people who point it out as 'pro-MS posters' or sycophants. Slashdot is losing credibility because of anti-MS zealots. And the mainstream media is catching on too. Just read this article.

It's about market segmentation.

Let's say a normal Windows license costs $50. XP costs $15 and they want to get rid of it. Hence Windows 7 Starter Edition.

The idea is that most netbook customers won't mind the 3 app limit. Or maybe they will and they will upgrade.

There is an article over on ars technica that goes into detail about the problems you are describing. It actually compares OSX and Windows, though. Starter Edition is not basing its "application" count on number of windows open, otherwise 3 word docs would be the limit. It is not basing it on processes, otherwise the damn thing wouldn't boot or would need a "base system" whitelist. It seems to be basing it on unique desktop applications, the same as the Applications tab in Task Manager. It does appear to have a whitelist for Windows utilities as Explorer and cmd windows do not count toward your limit. Also, applications with multiple processes work fine, like Chrome and its process-per-tab architecture.

This thing contains afaik 3 multi-axis accelerometers that are way more precise than what was possible during the launch of the Wii years back.

Actually, it uses a 3-axis gyroscope. Accelerometers can only measure movement, but the gyros can measure position. This is why you had to use a lot of "waggle" on wii games: the accelerometers couldn't tell the difference between flicking your wrist and an arm movement. The gyros can.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/08/wii-motion-sensor.ars

DS Chinatown Wars flops badly

I love how they whine about "the game only sold 100.000 units in two weeks" and make it sound like that's terrible. Madworld has been out for a month and has so far sold ~66.000 copies globally. THAT is bad. GTA:CW was released in mid-march and sold more that 100K copies in merely two weeks. What has this industry become that a hundred thousand players are bad news?

It's possible that gamers simply weren't interested in what they saw as a hacked-down version of the game, or that the demographic of the Nintendo DS really is as young as the haters would have you believe, no matter how many anecdotes you hear about adults buying the system.

DS Chinatown Wars flops badly

Who cares about Adobe. Let us go for the big one:
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2007/03/microsoft-executive-pirating-software-choose-microsoft.ars

"Microsoft group president Jeff Raikes told an audience in San Francisco last week that the company hopes people, if they're going to pirate software, choose to pirate Microsoft software. What's Raikes thinking?"

This is so not funny - its pure flame and its most trollish--- check this out asshammer - http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/03/google-launches-project-to-boost-python-performance-by-5x.ars

Sweet! Now your homework will run really fast.

The authors posit that the glacier itself might provide the source by extracting new iron as it scrapes across the underlying rocks.

This is so not funny - its pure flame and its most trollish--- check this out asshammer - http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/03/google-launches-project-to-boost-python-performance-by-5x.ars