Slashdot Mirror

Sure to be named Masturbating Monkey

It's amazing that people would install on roof solar panels these days. There is 10 times better ways to do it.

http://news.cnet.com/Home-builders-switch-on-the-invisible-solar-panels/2100-11392_3-6070992.html

That is a significant point.
The architecture of the BlackBerry system requires all traffic going to a BlackBerry device from an Enterprise email server to go through RIM's NOCs -- all Americas email traffic goes go through the Canada NOC at some point, all EMEA traffic goes through their NOC in the UK. [reference]

While all the transmissions are encrypted end-to-end (to the point that the system has passed US-government security reviews for secure traffic), the transmission of a US President's data traffic through systems that are outside of US jurisdiction and government control can be tricky.

But then again, this gets eliminated if they go with any other wireless email device that does not use RIM's infrastructure; there are plenty, and they can be made to work.

... which c|net has a pretty good article on concerning its ability to fulfill Obama's needs.

(Disclosure: I work for GD, but don't speak for them.)

I have yet to receive an explanation as to why some VP somewhere gets to make ten times as much myself.

Consider Steve Jobs. Some people credit him with changing Apple from "I'd shut it down and give the money back to the shareholders" to one of the hottest brands in technology.

Or consider Carly Fiorina, who some people think did the opposite to HP.

If I was buying a CEO for a big tech company, I would be willing to pay a premium of several million dollars to get Jobs over Fiorina.

Furthermore, isn't it possible that, just like there are open source developers doing as much good work as Linus Torvalds who are less well known, couldn't there be CEOs less well known than Jobs still doing a lot of good for their companies?

Here, have a "modern" computer.

Ballmer: Well, we've done very well on Netbooks. When they first came out, I'm not sure if people knew whether they were PCs or something else, and I think everybody kind of understands now that a Netbook is a small-form-factor, low-cost personal computer. And we're doing very well with Windows XP, which fits. Vista does not fit, and we're working hard to make sure Windows 7 fits very well on the Netbooks.

Goofy foot is what happens when everybody else changes direction and you don't. Most "modern" computer companies don't go goofy footed twice in a row.

Yeah, we could all use with more reviews and less rhetoric. We'll get the reviews. They're coming. No doubt this topic is going to get at least one slashdot article every day until the thing launches on the first of July. In the meantime everybody and his brother is going to whine about the features he wanted that he didn't get, whether he's tried the thing or not. It's like the anti-Christmas.

Personally I've got 12 machines to put through their paces on this thing and I'm not going to know how it fared for a couple weeks. It'll probably be a year before I know who's going to roll it out and when (based on when the enterprise in-house apps can be rewritten and/or validated). In the mean time I've got to find out if the deployment tool is the grand pool of wonderful that Vista's was (hack, puke!)

IRC operators battling botnets have long been able to take them down, and have long been battling with the ethics.

http://news.cnet.com/IRC-operators-may-out-hack-Fizzer/2100-1002_3-1003894.html

Sounds like the rest of the world is catching up after 8 years.

Via an older article on Cnet I found the Chrome extensions document, spotlighted on November 29th by Google programmer Aaron Boodman. From the document:

Use Cases
The following lists some types of extensions that we'd like to eventually support:

• Bookmarking/navigation tools: Delicious Toolbar, Stumbleupon, web-based history, new tab page clipboard accelerators
• Content enhancements: Skype extension (clickable phone numbers), RealPlayer extension (save video), Autolink (generic microformat data - addresses, phone numbers, etc.)
• Content filtering: Adblock, Flashblock, Privacy control, Parental control
• Download helpers: video helpers, download accelerators, DownThemAll, FlashGot
• Features: ForecastFox, FoxyTunes, Web Of Trust, GooglePreview, BugMeNot

This list is non-exhaustive, and we expect it to grow as the community expresses interest in further extension types.

Emphasis mine.

Given that USB 3.0 cables will have fiber optic cable(s) inside them, I don't think Hoi's comment is much of a joke. Be prepared for very expensive super-speed USB 3.0 cables.

Most of the major cell phone manufacturers in the US and Europe had already agreed to do this over a year ago: http://news.cnet.com/Pros-seem-to-outdo-cons-in-new-phone-charger-standard/2100-1041_3-6209247.html

Perhaps China is looking to ensure that their local manufacturers get/stay on the boat. Or maybe they are hoping to speed up the process- It's been a while since I got a new phone, so I have no idea whether the standardization mentioned in that article has arrived yet, or when it might.

Microsoft exec Bill Veghte confirms here that Windows 7 is just a service pack for Vista: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10112149-56.html

Here's an earlier article about the case, by Elinor Mills at CNET.

"Brian Rakowski, Chrome's product manager, said the company wants to release Chrome for Mac and Linux before the first half of 2009 is up."

I run Linux. By not making a Linux version they are not just shutting out 1% of the market, they are shutting out all of those Windows users that surround me. I don't suggest Chrome because I don't even have the opportunity to use it at home. If I am the 1 in a hundred that use Linux you can add 20 to 30 to me when it comes to what software gets a thumbs up, a thumbs down and an unknown. So really they are leaving out 20 to 30% of the market by not making a Linux version.

I'll believe it when I see it, but did you catch Google's Chrome for Linux and Mac plans? From the link:

• Brian Rakowski, Chrome's product manager, said the company wants to release Chrome for Mac and Linux before the first half of 2009 is up.

  "That's what we've been hoping for," he said in an interview Friday. "Those two efforts proceeding in parallel. They're at the same level of progress."

  The Mac and Linux versions are up to the level of a basic "test shell" that can show Web pages. But a test shell is pretty raw.

And no one ever was wrong about the next product that would knock Apple out of the lead in a niche:

http://gizmodo.com/384440/rim-engineers-call-touchscreen-blackberry-apple-killer
http://www.boingboing.net/2006/02/08/songbird-the-open-so.html
http://mediamemo.allthingsd.com/20081215/amazons-mp3-store-one-year-in-no-itunes-killer-probably-wont-be/
http://www.allfacebook.com/2007/10/facebook-to-launch-itunes-competitor/
http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/appleaday/blog/2008/07/dells_ipod_killer_revealed_pro.html
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1027_3-5183692.html

Yeah, that's what I thought too. Who gives a flying crap (other than Preston Gralla obviously) about a taskbar?

Solve the incompatibility problems between Vista and XP if you want to impress me. Plug security holes. Drop useless bulk. Or at least provide a way to optionally include it at install time. Streamline. Make it run faster than XP. Vista performance is embarrassingly atrocious. Fix THAT instead.

All these known problems and complaints, and the best thing you decide to do is to tout a new Taskbar? Unreal, MS.

Power usage for different types of TVs is not closely related to the 'averages'. See
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6475_7-6400401-3.html
I even question the 'averages' of this article.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-010309-fi-tv-g,0,3697326.graphic
It seems to imply that CRT televisions are more efficient.
The numbers also disagree with the 'averages' of Cnet's quick guide. If I'm going to buy a flat screen I will look at the power consumption and the performance of each candidate, regardless of the type. Trying to generalize which is 'best' just isn't valid at this time. If you are really concerned about the energy consumption, go to the Energy Star site
http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product.showProductGroup&pgw_code=TV

How is it irrational? They busted a "suspected child pr0n user" in my home town awhile back. I often walk right past the booking area on the way to the store. Do you know what that guy looked like? Like he had been dropped down a flight of stairs a couple of dozen times. Have YOU ever had your door kicked in? I have. They didn't even bother to look at the street number before kicking in MY door looking for the wife beater down the street. I had my arm nearly yanked out of my socket. Cops around here are so corrupt and scary I couldn't even get a lawyer to file a suit. The SECOND you say "suspected pedo" you have given bubba the cop a license to stomp your ass.

And you might want to read this which brings up EXACTLY what I had just posted. And have you already forgotten that the FBI doesn't even bother with getting referrers with their fake child pr0n web traps, just an IP address, which of course would trace back to YOUR router? So how exactly am I being irrational?

• Here is a cnet news article listing some AAC compatible mp3 players.

From the wikipedia aac article some interesting entries:

• The PlayStation 3 supports encoding and decoding of AAC files.
• The Xbox 360 supports streaming of AAC through the Zune software, and off supported iPods connected through the USB port
• The Wii video game console supports AAC files through version 1.1 of the Photo Channel as of December 11, 2007. All AAC profiles and bitrates are supported as long as it is in the.m4a file extension. This update removed MP3 compatibility, but users who have installed this may freely downgrade to the old version if they wish.[10]
• Microsoft Windows Mobile platforms support AAC either by the native Windows Media Player or by third-party products (TCPMP, CorePlayer)
• Sony Ericsson phones support various AAC formats in MP4 container. AAC-LC is supported in all phones beginning with K700, phones beginning with W550 have support of HE-AAC. The latest devices such as the P990, K610, W890i and later support HE-AAC v2.
• Nokia XpressMusic and other new generation Nokia multimedia phones: also support AAC format.
• BlackBerry: RIM's latest series of Smartphones such as the 8100 ("Pearl") and 8800 support AAC.
• Creative Zen Portable
• Microsoft Zune
• SanDisk Sansa
• Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP) with firmware 2.0 or greater
• Sony Walkman
• SonyEricsson Walkman Phones-W series, e.g. W890i
• Nintendo DSi To be released in America mid-2009

Back in April 2007, wired magazine said that only 10% of mp3 players supported AAC. Nowadays if the freaking Nintendo DS and Sony PSP even support AAC, it's probably safe to say at least half of new MP3 players support AAC, if not more. It's starting to be come a industry standard along with mp3. Who woulda thunk it back in 2007.

Well, you could shell between $300 and $400 for one of the hit-and-miss eReaders currently available. Or you could shell out between around $600 for a slightly less elegant eBook reading solution that with can also act as your car stereo, navigation (with some work/extra parts), and more-useful-than-most general purpose netbook. I know which route I'm taking (although I'll probably wait to see what netbook-tablet offerings there are at CES).

Your simplification numbers are too simple. You are cutting the Mac numbers basically in half: http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=11 Win: XP: 65.22% Vista: 21.12% 2000: 1.47% ttl: 88% est Mac: Intel-Based: 7.19% Legacy: 2.44% ttl: 10% It seems to me that a 10% possible gain is well worth going after - Don't you wish YOUR income went up 10%? Note also that those who buy expensive (Over $1000) computers are currently more likely to buy a Mac than a PC: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-9947501-37.html I'm thinking entering a market with more high-income users would be a good move for any company. That said, there are no guarantees, but it certainly a good market to look into.

...of Microblogs? According to CNN, yes. http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10131251-36.htmlhttp://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-10131251-36.html

Not to mention as we have seen JavaScript ads can compromise systems and by trying to block the blockers you will probably need even more complex JavaScript.

I know this will probably get me flamed here, but I just have to say it: JavaScript in its current form is a BAD idea. It is a BAD idea for the same reason as ActiveX is a bad idea, in that running active code which often comes from a third party through the browser is simply bad security wise. Perhaps the answer is sandboxing, or perhaps the answer is a new more secure web language, I don't know. But I do know that in its current implementation JavaScript has become a hacker haven just like when ActiveX was at its peak. If something doesn't change then IMHO JavaScript will become such a risk for malware that it will die out just as ActiveX has.

I do know that there are page after page pointing out the same thing, that JavaScript on websites can do some serious damage. I seriously think there needs to be a discussion on how to fix the security problems inherent with running code on websites. And IMHO having JavaScript from third parties load on websites is just making it that much more dangerous.

It's a shame how many of our rights are being curtailed in the name of "National Security".

As far as I've been able to ascertain from the article, Mr. Kerzic was standing in an area designated for use by the public. It does not appear to be a restricted area, and from what I can see from the photograph in the article, there are no signs warning against photography by the public.

However, as bad as we may think it is here in the United States (compared to the pre-9/11 world), things are much worse in the United Kingdom. The rights of the Individual in the UK are enshrined in Common Law (i.e., customary law passed down through the ages), and not explicitly delineated in any sort of constitutional document.

For example, in the US, we have a Constitutional Amendment guaranteeing the right against self-incrimination. A recent court case implies that this right includes encryption keys: If a law enforcement agency impounds your laptop for analysis, but can't get anything out of it because the contents have been encrypted, too bad for them. Handing over the encryption key would be a form of self-incrimination, so you don't have to do it.

On the other hand, laws, ordinances, and Police reactions regarding individual freedoms can and often do change at a whim, depending on what is expedient at the time (8th paragraph, about half-way down). In addition, since the right against self-incrimination is based on Common Law, and not written as an explicit right, ordinances like the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act can easily curtail and eliminate such rights. As usual, some groups say that even these powers do not go far enough, invoking the familiar mantra of "National Security".

And these things are happening in two of the most "open and democratic" societies the world has ever seen...

And on a side-note, here's an interesting question: Who's standing in the "restricted" zone across the tracks taking the picture of the "public" train platform?

Google, at least, supports user data portability, and not just with. social networking.

GMail lets you import and export your contacts in a variety of formats and access your email (for back-up or whatever) via IMAP and POP.

Picasa syncs the web albums to your local machine (and runs under Linux, thanks to Google's open source contributions to Wine).

Blogger lets you push blog content elsewhere.

There are probably more (like stuff you can access via GData APIs), but these are just the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

If you really want to see what WGA is sending to Microsoft, just capture the packets on their way to the internet and see what's being sent. Has anyone done that and found anything of real interest?

Yes, it has been done. MS has been sued over the amount of personal information being sent back to MS.
MS claimed that even releasing details on WGA in court would allow hackers to take over all of their customers windows computers.

So, we have MS admitting that they (and everyone else who looks) can have full control over windows systems, and they cant have the world knowing what data is being sent back due to security claims (What the govt would call national security, no doubt)

References:
http://www.betanews.com/article/Microsoft_Sued_Over_WGA_Program/1151615015
https://www.hackinthebox.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=28694
http://news.cnet.com/Microsoft-faces-second-WGA-lawsuit/2100-1014_3-6090651.html

Oh, and that info about what exactly is sent back to MS that the court ruled can not be released to the public due to 'hackers' being able to take full control over windows?
No, it is not of much interest. And nothing more identifiable than a GUID.

This link contains the full undecoded XML sent from WGA to MS:
http://blogs.msdn.com/wga/archive/2007/03/07/wga-notifications-and-download-and-install-telemetry.aspx

The Model T's nickname was " Tin Lizzy".

People expect computers to be toasters. They are not

Ha! That's what you think! The line is blurring....

There's an "average" laptop size that's a pretty damned good mix between size, cost, usability, and portability. In my current laptop, I decided to go for the wider screen and bigger laptop, and I don't like it as much as my smaller, lighter, "standard" sized previous model. (a Dell 600m) While I've seen much smaller laptops, I figure they are probably in much the same camp as my larger, heavier, more annoying laptop - they deviate from a standard size that has proven to be an awfully good set of compromises over years of time.

Phones are as big as they are because people like them that size. I don't mind the brick that is my home cordless phone because I don't live with it in my pocket. My Razr cell phone, on the other hand, is delightful primarily because of its minute form factor and it's compatibility with and accessibility from my jeans pocket.

Deviating from the "standard" form factor is very risky - the value of finding a new "right size" is high, but the chances of getting it right is very low. Dell blew it on my current laptop, it's too big and heavy for me to love.

Food for thought.

If he had bought, say, an 80 GB iPod before September of last year, he would have paid $350 for it. If instead he buys a Zune that lasts a few months for $50 and then buys an 80 GB iPod after September of last year, he would have paid $250 for it, thus a net GAIN of $50.

Point is, depending on how long the Zune lasted and what he gets to replace it, it's entirely possible that he broke even or even came out ahead. Shoot, maybe he'll buy one of those 80 GB iPods used and make a lot more than $50 for waiting on it. Or maybe he'll take advantage of the fact that by just getting by on a $50 Zune for a while, he can buy a much more interesting device now, such as a 32 GB iPod Touch, whereas if he had bought one of the shiny new 80 GB iPod videos a year ago, he likely wouldn't do.

At any rate, I just plain disagree that by buying something cheap now and holding off on getting the bleeding-edge gadgets, you're "losing" money, as should anyone who has, for example, invest $50 or $100 into upgrading a slow component of their desktop instead of going out dropping $2000 on a high-end system every year.

Lets make some real numbers in volume terms now.

A container from china costs from 2500$ to 3000$ to ship. They come in 45', 40' and 20' sizes. The smallest fits arount 33 cubic meters. At around 2 CFL per liter you could fit 66000. If we leave extra room let's say 50000. At 3000$ it costs 6 cents to get each CFL to the US. Now even if someone said "2 per liter? Baloney! the most you could fit is 20000!" well, fuel probably only accounts for 60% of the price anyway, so we are still talking cents.

We have less than 10 cents to ship versus 20$ savings. Come on!!! I think people have an aversion to anything china.

http://news.cnet.com/Sourcing-in-China-not-a-sure-bet/2030-1069_3-5561137.html [cnet.com]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containerization#Dimensions_and_payloads [wikipedia.org]

Real data, but let me put it in volume terms now.

A container from china costs from 2500$ to 3000$ to ship. They come in 45', 40' and 20' sizes. The smallest fits arount 33 cubic meters. At around 2 CFL per liter you could fit 66000. If we leave extra room let's say 50000. At 3000$ it costs 6 cents to get each CFL to the US. Now even if someone said "2 per liter? Baloney! the most you could fit is 20000!" well, fuel probably only accounts for 60% of the price anyway, so we are still talking cents.

We have less than 10 cents to ship versus 20$ savings. Come on!!! I think people have an aversion to anything china.

http://news.cnet.com/Sourcing-in-China-not-a-sure-bet/2030-1069_3-5561137.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containerization#Dimensions_and_payloads

I just did the posting I am quoting. I am logged on I can see my user (arthernan) at the top of the page. And the "post anonymously" check box is empty.

Real data, but let me put it in volume terms now.

A container from china costs from 2500$ to 3000$ to ship. They come in 45', 40' and 20' sizes. The smallest fits arount 33 cubic meters. At around 2 CFL per liter you could fit 66000. If we leave extra room let's say 50000. At 3000$ it costs 6 cents to get each CFL to the US. Now even if someone said "2 per liter? Baloney! the most you could fit is 20000!" well, fuel probably only accounts for 60% of the price anyway, so we are still talking cents.

We have less than 10 cents to ship versus 20$ savings. Come on!!! I think people have an aversion to anything china.

http://news.cnet.com/Sourcing-in-China-not-a-sure-bet/2030-1069_3-5561137.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Containerization#Dimensions_and_payloads

My thoughts exactly. This violates the Fifth Amendment as I understand it. Around this time last year we got this ruling from a federal judge ruling that forcing someone to divulge encryption passphrases was a violation of the 5th. I believe that a valid argument could be made by just about anyone that divulging their e-mail passphrase might reveal illegal activity, and therefore is constitutionally forbidden. My two cents.

However, the arrests are not necessarily a BAD thing.

Let me try to find a nice way to put this... Are you fucking nuts!?

A 16 and 17 year old gf/bf were prosecuted AND the prosecution was upheld 2-1 in appeals court under child porn laws for taking pictures of themselves naked. From the linked article:

Amber and Jeremy were arrested. Each was charged with producing, directing or promoting a photograph featuring the sexual conduct of a child. Based on the contents of his e-mail account, Jeremy was charged with an extra count of possession of child pornography.

So now these kids have criminal sex offender records? That's not a bad thing? What will these kids grow up to believe about the sanity of our society? Many psychologists would say being charged unjustly can easily turn good people bad, or maybe i've just seen too many Hollywood movies.

Next step I say we start locking kids up for masturbating and charge them with pederasty (they're exposing themselves to... themselves!!) Doesn't sound so far fetched anymore. Welcome back to the 1800s, we sure missed ya. At least this time around we can profit by buying stock in a chastity belt company!

An increasingly more common mechanical solution to this problem is to use flywheels:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flywheel_energy_storage
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9968539-54.html

Another nice mechanical way to store energy is to pump pressurized air into underground salt domes as is already being done for about 25 years in Germany:

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2006/01/compressed_air_2.php

But your solution of lifting heavy stuff is in use as well in the form of pumping water back into storage lakes:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wivenhoe_Power_Station,_Queensland
http://www.usbr.gov/power/data/sites/mtelbert/mtelbert.html

This will only work if they make un-metered applications illegal and move OS functionality to the cloud and of course patent cloud computing ..

Kodak wins Java patent suit

"Eastman Kodak has won a controversial lawsuit in which it claimed Sun Microsystems had infringed several of its patents with its Java programming language."

Microsoft bought a controlling share in Apple

I'd hardly call $150 Million a controlling share. Microsoft bought about 8 Million shares, and there are about 800 million shares currently outstanding. So approximately 1% of current - or 4% accounting for the 2000 and 2005 2:1 splits (each).

* figures based on cnet article linked above ($150M/$19) and current stock price and market cap. This doesn't take into account new issues or share buybacks, which likely do not materially affect my case.

From 11 months ago. Panasonic already has a tru2way television on the market already.

No one with any sense will fund them.

Quantum computing is getting a fair bit of funding. D-Wave, as the primary example, raised $44 million from various sources. I agree with you if someone wanted to start up another AMD to build Intel clones... that's 100% crazy. But for someone with a new type of processor (like quantum ones) that have an amazing amount of (theoretical) potential, it's worth the risk given the potential upside.

At the moment there is no evidence of openness that I can find.

you either didn't look very hard or don't have much in the way of researching skills.

http://www.roku.com/community/gpl_nfp.php

http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=2932

http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/30/1645200&from=rss

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10050649-93.html

http://hackaday.com/2008/07/02/netflix-player-source-code-released/

http://forums.rokulabs.com/viewtopic.php?t=17046&highlight=&sid=1bea026fdae6ddaace484e70273f2d0d

I'm not saying much has become of it, but Roku has already released all GPL code and is hosting forums for their users where they allow talk about hacking it at least. They publicly state their intentions to allow any content provider to use their box to distribute content, and mention the release of a software development kit to help people do that.

I don't know if you are claiming there is no evidence of "open" as in FOSS or "open" as in allowing other companies to use the platform, but there seems to be plenty of evidence of both.

You don't have to buy your media from the ITMS...

Even if you do, you can buy the DRM-free tracks. Apple's ready to sell anything that the labels will let them sell.

Unfortunately, that's not that much. Only one of the big labels (EMI) offers DRM-free music via iTunes.

There were rumors Apple was going to offer all tracks publiced by Sony, Universal and Warner DRM-free beginning on December 9th, but that was rapidly claimed to be untrue.

"In an interview with CNET News this week, Rio Caraeff, executive vice president of Universal Music Group's eLabs, said the largest of the top recording companies is bringing in "tens of millions of dollars" from YouTube."

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-10126439-93.html
December 18, 2008

While I admit I can't prove that they won't, can you prove that they will?

Look at the money bands have made by offering downloads on a "pay what you want to" model.

Trent Reznor has made no secret of how the Nine Inch Nails album Ghosts I-IV has sold. According to the band, 800,000 transactions generated $1.6 million in sales revenue in the first week of the album's availability, despite the fact that the 36-song version of the album is widely available on torrent sites.

People could have gotten it free, but chose to pay for it. Proof enough for you?

If you're the RIAA that's all you need to sue.

If you're the RIAA or some other Democratic crusader, that's all you need to sue.

There, fixed that for you...

Oh, you didn't know, **AA are solidly Democratic? Then you have not been paying attention...

I do find it interesting that dell has ditched the overly conservitive look... but maybe they are just figuring out that looks do sell. Then again this might be what you get when you Put a designer from Nike and a 25 year veteran from wireless industry in the room to build a computer (Ed Boyd and John Thode).

Even more important than the question of what would motivate an ISP to block services is the question of how they would go about doing it.

The FCC recently in a formal ruling that Comcast's P2P throttling was illegal and ordered them to cease and desist (see http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10004508-38.html?tag=mncol;txt for more info).

So this effectively puts a hamper on "limiting file sharing services" as a blanket policy. The RIAA will likely have to instead focus on individual users who are doing specific things. This basically just takes their problems out of the courthouse and into ISP corporate offices.

There was an article a few months ago about this that stated that the mechanism was used to calculate Olympiads.
That was the first interpretation of the mechanism. Now the model shows that it was much more than that as it can predict eclipses and planetary positions.

As for it not being a 'computer' I disagree. There are two forms of computers, analog and digital. An analog computer is basically a measuring device like a ruler or slide rule, thermometer and so on.
The mechanism is definitely an analog computer.
The Greeks were very good at building gadgets and even extremely large hydro-mechanical machines. Most of these constructions were used in temples to simulate thunder, automatic opening and closing doors, automated movement of objects (think Temple of Doom).
Their skill was renown in the ancient world and the mechanism is a tribute to their ingenuity.
 

How does this relate to such programs as NSAs Echelon and wholescale tapping of fiberlinks in major switching centers such as at AT&T. Incidentally most of the current effort in surveillance goes on industrial espionage and the monitoring of 'activists', ie people who speak out against the government.

http://www.spamdailynews.com/publish/ATT_tech_outs_NSA_spy_room.asp
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=LDk6jxcSDlQ
,br>