Slashdot Mirror

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/wireless/?p=169

If you read up on it more, they're using silicon nanotubes to store the lithium instead of the carbon anode.

How many times does it have to be repeated? Counting vulnerabilities is a stupid way to measure security. Counting vulnerabilities is a stupid way to measure security. Counting vulnerabilities is a stupid way to measure security.

Shouldn't Slashdot link to some more insightful analysis?

According to the document provided, the teacher called it 'Foxfire.exe'

http://www.virdeal.com.com/ http://www.allgamegold.com/ http://runescapeblogmaster.blogspot.com/ http://funingame-runescape.blogspot.com/ http://runescape-video-top10.blogspot.com/ http://runescapevideo.wordpress.com/ http://buyrunescapegold.wordpress.com/ http://virdeal-runescape-99.spaces.live.com/default.aspx http://www.bloglines.com/blog/virdeal-runescape http://runescapediscussion.blogspot.com/ http://runescapegold4realmoney.wordpress.com/ http://www.allgamegold.com/index.html http://www.allgamegold.com/runescape-gold.html http://www.allgamegold.com/runescape-guides.html http://www.allgamegold.com/runescape_skill_guides.html http://www.allgamegold.com/runescape_city_guides.html http://www.allgamegold.com/runescape_guild_guides.html http://www.allgamegold.com/free_runescape_quest_guides.html http://www.allgamegold.com/p2p_runescape_quest_guides.html http://www.allgamegold.com/runescape_mini_game_guides.html http://www.allgamegold.com/runescape_miscellaneous_guides.html

Proprietary technology doesn't provide absolute security. If the code is exposed, or if crackers are secretly able to probe a system to determine how it works, the device can become vulnerable to attack. Cisco doesn't always inform it's clients of new vulnerabilities to it's hardware.

A few years ago, someone leaked portions of Cisco IOS source code. I forget if this ended up being a hoax.

So how do I create a tabular layout for non-tabular data without using a table? Say, two columns - nav sidebar and main content area - having equal, but liquid height (let's say I'd like the column borders to line up)?

There are ways to do that (example 1, example 2, example 3, example 4, and so on). Some are hackier than others, each one has its own set of quirks and restrictions, but then table-layouts have their own issues and drawbacks as well.

Ha!
You may "personally disagree" ofcourse, but do think about it a bit more.
Apple maybe selling a bit more Macs, because of the Ipod and Vista, but there is definately an upper limit to that. Businesses, unless they are in the graphics industry, will not switch to Macs. Also, outside the US Apple has a much smaller share.

Microsoft is hardly an amateur when it comes to abusing it's position. I suggest you read up a little bit on Microsoft's history.

Microsoft plays hardball(pdf) is a nice start. It describes the licensing techniques Bill Gates used on OEM's.

Don't think anything has changed, Bill Gates is still there with his extreme competitiveness. The company breathes his attitude towards business. And you get to see it often. Bribing Nigerian officials, dumping software in China, aggressive OOXML lobbying, it's all illegal... They are not exactly showing corporate social responsibility, like big companies are supposed to do this day and age.

Really the simplest proof that Microsoft maintains a crippling monopoly, is the pricing of their products.
Even with bulk license contracts, Vista and Microsoft Office are still much, much more expensive than it's competitors. Yes, you can argue about differences in functionality, but change the discussion to value to cost ratio and it's a clear cut case.

Normal market effects aren't working, a clear sign of market manipulation. Even 15 years after Bill Gates' CPU-licensing practices, OEM's still almost exclusively sell Microsoft OS's on their PC's for consumers. You tell me why. And don't say it's because consumers demand it.

Heck, Microsoft might be selling the greatest software on earth, consumers should still have the freedom of choice to get that not-so-perfect, -but free- software with their PC.

And before that, Star Wars.

I am just waiting so I don't buy the equivilent of a VCR/Laser Disc player/walkman. I wish one of them would win already!

Though I understand the thinking, when the Toshiba HD DVD players hit the $100 mark they were very competitive than the regular upscaling DVD players, so effectively you get the HD DVD playing functionality for free or damn cheap at that point. If you do Netflix they carry a wide variety of HD DVD including new releases, so you never have to worry about getting "stuck with" a dead format, and you still have an upconverting DVD player. The only HD DVD's you would get "stuck with" would be the 5 free HD DVD's that come with it.

So at $100... why not?

AT&T sucks

The ACLU won the first round of this legal challenge in August 2006, when U.S. District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled the NSA program violates the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in her ACLU v. NSA decision. "It was never the intent of the Framers to give the President such unfettered control," Taylor wrote in the decision, "particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights."

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nsaspying/index.html

"AT&T has been named a defendant in a class action lawsuit that claims the telecommunications company illegally cooperated with the National Security Agency's secret eavesdropping program.

A Los Angeles Times article dated Dec. 26 quoted an unnamed source as saying the NSA has a "direct hookup" into an AT&T database that stores information about all domestic phone calls, including how long they lasted.

http://news.com.com/AT38T+sued+over+NSA+spy+program/2100-1028_3-6033501.html

"Have you turned over information or opened up your networks to the NSA without being compelled by law?"

Company Response
Adelphia Communications Declined comment
AOL Time Warner No [1]
AT&T Declined comment
BellSouth Communications No
Cable & Wireless* No response
Cablevision Systems No
CenturyTel No
Charter Communications No [1]
Cingular Wireless No [2]
Citizens Communications No response
Cogent Communications* No [1]
Comcast No
Cox Communications No
EarthLink No
Global Crossing* Inconclusive
Google Declined comment
Level 3* No response
Microsoft No [3]
NTT Communications* Inconclusive [4]
Qwest Communications No [2]
SAVVIS Communications* No response
Sprint Nextel No [2]
T-Mobile USA No [2]
United Online No response
Verizon Communications Inconclusive [5]
XO Communications* No [1]
Yahoo Declined comment

* = Not a company contacted by Rep. John Conyers.
[1] The answer did not explicitly address NSA but said that compliance happens only if required by law.
[2] Provided by a source with knowledge of what this company is telling Conyers. In the case of Sprint Nextel, the source was familiar with Nextel's operations.
[3] As part of an answer to a closely related question for a different survey.
[4] The response was "NTT Communications respects the privacy rights of our customers and complies fully with law enforcement requests as permitted and required by law."
[5] The response was "Verizon complies with applicable laws and does not comment on law enforcement or national security matters."

http://news.com.com/Some+companies+helped+the+NSA%2C+but+which/2100-1028_3-6035305.html

Additional info from the EFF

http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/faq.php

AT&T sucks

The ACLU won the first round of this legal challenge in August 2006, when U.S. District Court Judge Anna Diggs Taylor ruled the NSA program violates the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in her ACLU v. NSA decision. "It was never the intent of the Framers to give the President such unfettered control," Taylor wrote in the decision, "particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights."

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/nsaspying/index.html

"AT&T has been named a defendant in a class action lawsuit that claims the telecommunications company illegally cooperated with the National Security Agency's secret eavesdropping program.

A Los Angeles Times article dated Dec. 26 quoted an unnamed source as saying the NSA has a "direct hookup" into an AT&T database that stores information about all domestic phone calls, including how long they lasted.

http://news.com.com/AT38T+sued+over+NSA+spy+program/2100-1028_3-6033501.html

"Have you turned over information or opened up your networks to the NSA without being compelled by law?"

Company Response
Adelphia Communications Declined comment
AOL Time Warner No [1]
AT&T Declined comment
BellSouth Communications No
Cable & Wireless* No response
Cablevision Systems No
CenturyTel No
Charter Communications No [1]
Cingular Wireless No [2]
Citizens Communications No response
Cogent Communications* No [1]
Comcast No
Cox Communications No
EarthLink No
Global Crossing* Inconclusive
Google Declined comment
Level 3* No response
Microsoft No [3]
NTT Communications* Inconclusive [4]
Qwest Communications No [2]
SAVVIS Communications* No response
Sprint Nextel No [2]
T-Mobile USA No [2]
United Online No response
Verizon Communications Inconclusive [5]
XO Communications* No [1]
Yahoo Declined comment

* = Not a company contacted by Rep. John Conyers.
[1] The answer did not explicitly address NSA but said that compliance happens only if required by law.
[2] Provided by a source with knowledge of what this company is telling Conyers. In the case of Sprint Nextel, the source was familiar with Nextel's operations.
[3] As part of an answer to a closely related question for a different survey.
[4] The response was "NTT Communications respects the privacy rights of our customers and complies fully with law enforcement requests as permitted and required by law."
[5] The response was "Verizon complies with applicable laws and does not comment on law enforcement or national security matters."

http://news.com.com/Some+companies+helped+the+NSA%2C+but+which/2100-1028_3-6035305.html

Additional info from the EFF

http://www.eff.org/legal/cases/att/faq.php

Everyone I've talked to who's used Office functionality above and beyond a simple letter, or presentation

You can't do serious worksheet manipulation in open office

you can't track changes in your documents

You can't integrate with countless applications

you just can't do a lot of things that people take for granted in MS Office

you also can't properly open MS Office documents

Its the countless people who parrot each other saying that an open source alternative is always better than a closed source alternative that turn people off from linux.

I am no zealot. I prefer open source, but isntall closed source when necessary: although at the moment I use very little proprietary stuff (Flash and Java are about it, apart from Opera which I no longer really use).

...and it will try to run over a reporter...

RMS isn't writing much lately because he blew out his fingers with RSI writing as much as he did. He still has pain and can't help it. I'm sure it is a source of continuing sadness to him that he can't code as he once did.

I would be happy to recommend a good voice-to-text program to RMS.

IMO, if Linus had not come along with a working kernel, someone else would have.

I am confused why people espouse this "RMS is special but Linus is not" nonsense. The key idea behind the GPL -- that I will show you my source code if you agree to show me any derivatives you make -- is relatively simple. So simple that it is completely ridiculous to claim that only one man in the history of computing could possibly have thought of it. I will agree wholeheartedly that RMS was ahead of his time and deserves lots of credit for the GPL -- but in that case, by your own argument (who had "come along" by the time Linux was released? not Hurd), so was Linus.

Well, look at what Linus has said about GPL3 on a number of occassions. RMS is not responding in kind. RMS response is much more even-tempered than that of Linus.

Your revisionist view of history is somewhere between baffling and appalling. Linus heavily criticized the GPLv3 during its draft stages. Ultimately said he was "pretty pleased" and "much happier" with the final version (source). His most recent comment is that he thinks GPLv3 is okay, but does not support its philosophical outlook (source). Perhaps Linus' language was undiplomatic in his criticism, but his most recent comments are rather conciliatory. He has also expressed his "love" for GPLv2 (source).

The invective is certainly not one-way from Linus to FSF, proof of which is found in your own posts in this thread (as well as, I would argue, RMS's own comments that prompted this article).

You seem to be suggesting that it is not permissible to criticize even a draft version of an FSF publication. You furthermore seem to be suggesting that everyone in the open source movement must completely agree with the goals and philosophy of the FSF.

You have said previously that your job is to convince companies of the benefits of open source. Has it occurred to you that the bizarre RMS cult-of-personality, into which you appear to have bought, is one reason why companies need so much convincing?

And, before you attempt to criticize me as a corporate shill (as you did that anonymous coward above), you should be aware that I work for a not-for-profit organization.

That's a fine setting for a home system. It's asking for trouble in a corporate environment, particularly one where you run custom applications or services. If this happens on your home computer, it's largely an issue of annoyance and inconvenience. If it happens to large numbers of computers in an enterprise, it may mean losses of millions of dollars. Most enterprises test patches on lab machines to identify issues before they deploy them. MS (or Ubuntu or Apple or whomever) has no business patching anyone's machine without permission. Period.

Nessus is not open source anymore! They closed their code.

ACID is not maintained, use BASE instead!

Swatch is old and outdated, use OSSEC instead!

Refs:
http://news.com.com/Nessus+security+tool+closes+its+source/2100-7344_3-5890093.html
http://base.secureideas.net/
http://www.ossec.net/

See also the CNet article: Torvalds 'pretty pleased' about new GPL 3 draft.

But neither Mr. Stallman nor Mr. Torvalds seem to have discussed the underlying issue: Can a company move part of its code into hardware and thereby escape control of the GPL? The statements referenced in the Wikipedia article about "Tivoization" seem inadequate.

Anyone remembers an earlier story about CCIA?

Nessus is a funny one since it's no longer open source.

does Ubuntu even have an advertising budget?

This was the first link on the first Google page, a Wikipedia link about Star Office:

"The company, copyright and trademark of StarOffice were acquired by Sun Microsystems in 1999 for US $73.5 million. Sun was seeking to compete with Microsoft Office, and also wanted to save money on licenses for Microsoft Office and Windows:

"The number one reason why Sun bought StarDivision in 1999 was because, at the time, Sun had something approaching forty-two thousand employees. Pretty much every one of them had to have both a Unix workstation and a Windows laptop. And it was cheaper to go buy a company that could make a Solaris and Linux desktop productivity suite than it was to buy forty-two thousand licenses from Microsoft. (Simon Phipps, Sun, LUGradio podcast)"

However, the figure of $88 million was reported at the time, and, for some reason, which I don't remember, the $88 million seemed authoritative. Of course, the exact figure doesn't matter.

CNet News reported $73.5 million at the time: Sun shelled out $73.5 million for Star Division.

IE has been end of lifed by Microsoft for quite a while on Macs, and same for MS's office suite.

Some guy named 2008 called from the future. He says you're wrong.

Building software is about communication and change management. Putting 5,000 miles, 9 time zones and the history of human civilizations language and MOST importantly culture differences on top of your standard business risk is retarded.

Well, that would mean that all those transnational corporations that span the globe just can't possibly exist. A bee can't fly according to the theory. But it does fly in practice! There are indeed cultural differences and time zones involved, but as matter of fact soon I may need to work with people in Europe, so it would be no difference to me to work with people in India, for example - same difference, just the opposite sign.

And once the company overcomes this difference and equips itself with modern video and audio communication means you suddenly discover that you don't care any more where people are - you can discuss matters with them just as easily as if they are next to you in the conference room. Once you are there, you are a global player. There are thousands of US companies that broke that barrier; I work for one of them now.

And global companies don't need to outsource; they own that foreign piece outright. Look how Microsoft does it - they build wholly owned development center in Bangalore:

"As a research organization, you want to hire the best and brightest people. That's what we did in China six years ago," said Rick Rashid, senior vice president of Microsoft Research. "Ultimately, the work that will be going on there will be based on the people we hire."

This way MS fully controls who works on what project, and avoids the need to work with transient staff (unless they want to, of course.) This means that what you say about "internal projects" is true, but it also means that there is a simple solution to that - and a common US coder is not part of it.

The real problem with this, is that nobody is going to become competent at building software on a large scale until they understand what's happening on a medium and small scale.

Absolutely true - and currently US market forces strangle the local supply of local developers.

Corporate America and Europe are sowing the seeds of economic destruction...

Not so fast here - destruction of whose economy? If you are talking about developer's economy and his job prospects then you are right on the money. If you are talking about corporate profits then you are off the mark by a mile. You see, the current trend - which could be, and was, predicted by economists long ago - is to own the virtual and financial means of production by holding IP and factories and know-how, but allow the unwashed peasants to do all the labor. Now that I mentioned peasants, does it not look familiar? So nothing is new under the Sun, and we are back to the same ages old principle - barons own the land, and peasants work it. This is the repeating theme of more than one civilization because it is one of most stable ones, and represents an evolutionary end. You have nowhere else to go (peacefully) past that point, but once there you (as a baron) have accumulated everything. And by the way, if the peasants from that little village called "the USA" want more pay, screw them - I own plenty more peasants; the USians can either die from hunger or to accept my terms.

at the expense of the rights of people?

It's OK to be importing an unprecedented amount of Chinese goods and exploit the cheap labor for every other aspect of the western economy, but Google is evil because they set up a satellite search service that institutes the required Chinese national policies?

Strawman argument. You brought up cheap Chinese goods and labor, not I. I am in no way defending the exploitation of the chinese worker.

Since the suppression of information is happening regardless of Google's presence, that should clarify that the root of the suppression is not due to U.S. companies agreeing to Chinese government demands, but is the Chinese government itself.

Fact: Google actively filters information on behalf of the Chinese government. The great firewall of China was built with American technology. Google is a part of that.

Frankly, it's also better for U.S. interests to have a "bubble" of Google servers that have a set of blacklisted/censored material for the time being, instead of watching Google lose out entirely in the fastest growing economy to the Chinese domestic engines (e.g. Baidu)

If you'll refer back to the link I posted, you'll see that at least a few members of the US Congress do not believe Google's behavior is in the best interest of the US. Chris Smith went so far as to propose a law to make Google's actions there illegal here. (Of course, his hypocritical solution allows for the filtering of content in the United States to continue, yet would make filtering the exact same material in China illegal.)

In game theory, it seems you would consider the situation a deadlock. I would consider it a prisoner dilemma. I believe human rights are more valuable than money. You must consider money to be more important than human rights. The mods seem to agree with you. Perhaps you and the mods would like to sell your rights... or is it only the rights of other people that you consider to be less important than money?

These politicians who (while it was a popular subject) wanted to crucify Google don't have any qualms about continuing to support China by importing their cheap goods and exploiting the cheap labor costs.

You can thank almighty capitalism for that. Chinese currency manipulation is largely to blame for the "cheap" goods and labor. What follows that is inevitable in a free market. Spineless politicians are more deserving of blame in regards to "one way" free trade with China. In effect, China is exploiting loopholes in a debt based global economy in an attempt to dominate said global economy.

Office does this by default and can't be turned off

That's evil. The rest is icing on the cake.

That was Joanna Rutkowska herself:
http://i.i.com.com/cnwk.1d/i/z/200701/bh-dc-07-Rut kowska-ppt.pdf
Google "Rutkowska DMA" for more discussion (one of my blogs is the third hit).

And which of those apps do you actually require to do what they pay you to do? Given serious security weaknesses that could cause your admin's lives to suck, in terms of unplanned recovery overtime, etc., you want sympathy because you can't wank with youtube? I bet your admins friggin' love you. Hint--the world does not owe you a living.

Google around for average time spent responding to a security incident. Go read something like
http://news.com.com/The+security+risk+in+Web+2.0/2 100-1002_3-6099228.html

If, after that, you still feel all beat on and downtrodden, you might consider careers involving paper hats--though even there, coworkers probably won't appreciate your willingness to cause them grief in order to make your screwing off more pleasurable. It's a human nature thing, and you'll find it hard to avoid.

>DEC was bought by Compaq way back when (1997?). Compaq was bought by HP more recently. AMD was not involved with either of those takeovers.
>So how did AMD get the DEC Alpha engineers? As far as I know, the DEC Alpha guys are still within HP. Did I miss something?

Alpha team was spun off to Intel.
http://news.com.com/Intel+gets+more+key+Alpha+alum s/2100-1006_3-1023146.html
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=20024

How many people were working on Alpha EV7 are still working at Intel would be a valid question -one you couldn't easily answer.
Probably there are even some engineers that worked on EV7 that changed jobs to work for Intel outside of Intel acquiring the teams.

Also - IIRC, Intel acquired some engineers from DEC (mostly process folks I think) back around when Compaq acquired them.

I'm sure there are people who work for AMD now that had worked on an Alpha project.
Just like I am sure there are people who work for Intel that worked on an Opteron project.
People switch jobs, and there's only so many companies that do microprocessor design. (or even more broadly, only so many semiconductor design companies)

CNET's take on it in the form of a top 10 list. (Bush's white house is on there 2 times)

http://news.com.com/8301-13578_3-9773538-38.html

So you work for IBM or Sun? Virtual presence, its not just for furries yiffing anymore. d:

Are they Tom Cruise Missiles?

well, it's obvious to me that he figured out where Jim Gray was, and liked the view...

And you got all this unsubstantiated speculation from where, exactly?

Well, since you asked, Microsoft's ME II, better known as Vista, is causing unhappy faces everywhere I go. It isn't just that people don't want to use it, or that it's insecure and buggy or that the very word vista has "failure" attached to it. It isn't that Vista isn't even compatible with Microsoft's own SQL Server.

Most of the people that I know only care that it's not possible to deploy Vista with industry standard tools. A rollback is likely, and there are substantial unresolved issues preventing deployment.

Although I'm aware you don't appreciate twitter's attention to these matters, I do. I do appreciate twitter's attention to these things quite a lot.

Thanks, twitter.

I think you're right on this one - the blank cassette/CD/media levy has been a schmozzle from an artist's perspective.

As I understand it, however, it has been the legal toe-hold that has made downloading of any material from a p2p network *not* illegal in Canada, so it has had an unintended side-effect that has helped avoid the RIAA lawsuit debacle up here. See the link below for background.

Engadget has a helpful rumor roundup - just to keep the /. discussion lively with speculation. Aside from the next-gen touchscreen iPod, there's the Beatles' catalogue on iTMS, direct-to-iPhone (iPod) music store downloads, and increased capacity in the Nano. "Analysis" (i.e., educated speculation and wishful thinking) available from CNet, ArsTechnica, and AppleInsider (1, 2, 3).

Check out this cNet opinion on this: http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9767325-7.html

Since when can the State Secret privilege be used to keep secret a program that is probably illegal? That's an enormous conflict of interest. The president doesn't (or at least shouldn't) have the "privilege" to cover up what are probably illegal actions.

Since at least April 28, 2006.

W

The voyager sats are some of our most successful missions, i'd challenge anyone to do better then their "out modded" systems.

The IRS seems to be pretty succesful: they still run their 1960s mainframes, yet they're still pinching everybody's money. That's one mission everybody would like to see fail...

Court rules against TorrentSpy in hacking case

By Greg Sandoval
http://news.com.com/Court+rules+against+TorrentSpy +in+hacking+case/2100-1030_3-6204948.html

Story last modified Tue Aug 28 16:32:05 PDT 2007

A correction was made to this story. Read below for details.
A lawsuit filed last year by TorrentSpy--a BitTorrent search engine--that accused the movie studios' trade group of intercepting the company's private e-mails, was tossed out of court last week.

But while a U.S. District judge found that the Motion Picture Association of America had not violated the federal Wiretap Act, as TorrentSpy's attorneys had argued, the MPAA acknowledged in court records that it paid $15,000 to obtain private e-mails belonging to TorrentSpy executives.

The MPAA's acknowledgement is significant because it comes at a time when the group is trying to limit illegal file sharing by imploring movie fans to act ethically and resist the temptation to download pirated movies. To critics, the revelation by the MPAA is a possible sign that the organization is itself not above adopting unethical practices in its fight against file sharing.

"Ethically, it's pretty clear that reading other people's e-mail is wrong," said Lorrie Cranor, an associate research professor and Internet privacy expert at Carnegie Mellon University. "Being offered someone else's e-mails by a third party should have been a red flag."

The MPAA, which says that illegal file sharing costs the film industry more than $2 billion annually, did not respond to interview requests.

In court records, the MPAA said that the person who obtained the e-mails did so before approaching the group with an offer to sell the information and that he signed a contract stating he had come by the correspondence through lawful means.

Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy's attorney said: "We believe that the MPAA, when it paid $15,000 for about 30 pages of e-mails, knew or should have known they were involved in purchasing something in a wrongful manner."

Rothken said that TorrentSpy will appeal the court's decision that the pilfering of TorrentSpy's e-mail did not violate the Wiretap Act.

Now on News.com
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According to court documents, the MPAA came into possession of the e-mails after first being approached by Robert Anderson. Anderson is a former business associate of Justin Bunnell, TorrentSpy's founder.

Anderson allegedly "hacked" into TorrentSpy's e-mail system and rigged it so that "every incoming and outgoing e-mail message would also be copied and forwarded to his anonymous Google e-mail account," records show.

Anderson contacted Dean Garfield, the MPAA's senior legal counsel, in June 2005. Anderson told Garfield that he had an informant who supplied him with the e-mails.

District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper also agreed with the MPAA that TorrentSpy failed to prove that the information obtained by Anderson qualified as trade secrets.

Correction: This story misidentified the former business associate of TorrentSpy's founder. His name is Robert Anderson.

Copyright ©1995-2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved.

"I've been criticized for not understanding what Google really means by its content privacy policies. OK. The problem with such common sensical thinking is that it may not carry much weight in the courtroom."

http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9769437-7.html?pa rt=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

(Ripped from Firehose in case it's not worth a front page article.)

Hey, we just might get our flying cars. But they won't be coming from this guy. (See below for the bazillion posts of SCAM SCAM SCAM - this guy's been at it for years.

But there is a ray of light on the horizon, in the form of a real, honest-to-gosh flying car.

As a private pilot, I'm so hoping so hoping so hoping that this one actually works out! Light plane aviation has a number of problems:

1) Getting from your house to the plane is a hassle - the plane's at an airport, you have to park your car, leaving your car for very long can be expensive, you need a ride in a cab, etc.

2) Weather is a BIATCH. You plan a flight a week in advance, and then you get thunderstorms hitting right where you wanted to land. Small planes don't do nearly as well as the big jets in bad weather.

3) Hassle at the other end: Once you've landed, you're more or less stuck without a rental car. And in many smaller airports, that's a pain. Rental car agencies will deliver a rental car, but that doesn't make much sense when the nearest rental is 45 minutes away.

4) Parking - who wants to pay hundreds of dollars a month for what amounts to a garage that happens to be next to the tarmac at the airport?

The MIT "folding wings" car would solve all these problems:

1) Drive it to the airport.

2) If the weather gets too bad to fly, land at the nearest airport and drive the rest of the way.

3) Once you've landed, you fold wings and drive to your destination on surface streets.

4) At home, you park it in your garage!

All this for about $100,000?!?!?! Hell yes I'd buy one!

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+Vista+service+pack+c oming+in+08/2100-1016_3-6204980.html

The thing to note from this article is this quote:

"Vista SP1 will be a large download: Roughly 1GB, based on current test versions. By way of comparison, Windows XP--the whole thing--shipped on a CD, which only holds about three quarters of a gigabyte. Installing the OS upgrade will require 7GB of free hard drive space, though much of that will be returned to the user once the megapatch is applied, Microsoft said."

That conflicts with this statement from TFA:

"DeVaan: It's true that at first glance it will look like a lot is changing, and it's true that there are thousands of files being changed to varying degrees in Windows Vista SP1. However, the first measure of "size" most people will encounter will likely be the download of Windows Vista SP1 through Windows Update or Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), which we predict will be about 50 MB. The second measure of size will be the free disk space requirement for installing Windows Vista SP1, which is currently around 7 GB for the beta, although we will be working to bring this down for the final version as we optimize the servicing algorithms used."

So... which is it?

It is certainly possible you are correct. It is also possible this is not the law that I am thinking of - I simply took the first google link that looked about right. My source was this cnet news story. The money quote:

"Legal experts say LiveJournal is clearly not liable for fictional stories and related discussions posted by its users, thanks to a 1996 federal law immunizing Web-based discussion forums from lawsuits. "If the content is otherwise legal, then LiveJournal has no obligation to police its site or remove any legal content it finds," said Eric Goldman, who teaches at the Santa Clara University School of Law."

Most cellphones coming out now (with the notable exception of smartphones (except for Blackberry)) are Java enabled. If you've purchased a game on your cellphone is it likely written in Java.
Motorola was among the first to adopt Java in all their new phones: http://www.wirelessdevnet.com/columns/oct2000/mobd ev13.html

Since then most other cellphone manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-268154.html, http://archive.chipcenter.com/knowledge_centers/wi reless/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=10800173

As for hardware execution of bytecode, what's happening now is not the original approach that Sun attempted (i.e. integrating a bytecode interpreter right into the CPU). What is happening now is that several vendors are selling "accelerator" chips that sit between the CPU and the SRAM and execute the bytecodes for the CPU. This modular design has made it easier to integrate these accelerators into existing designs. The Nazomi JA108 is one of the more successful models from what I can gather.

You still have to run a virtual machine, however with the accelerator chip actually executing the bytecodes you get vastly improved performance and reduced battery drain.

Some of these accelerators are even finding their way into other technologies as well, not just cell phones: http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?AD=1& ArticleID=1916

I could polish up this list a little but Google is your friend too :)

Most cellphones coming out now (with the notable exception of smartphones (except for Blackberry)) are Java enabled. If you've purchased a game on your cellphone is it likely written in Java.
Motorola was among the first to adopt Java in all their new phones: http://www.wirelessdevnet.com/columns/oct2000/mobd ev13.html

Since then most other cellphone manufacturers have jumped on the bandwagon: http://news.com.com/2100-1001-268154.html, http://archive.chipcenter.com/knowledge_centers/wi reless/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=10800173

As for hardware execution of bytecode, what's happening now is not the original approach that Sun attempted (i.e. integrating a bytecode interpreter right into the CPU). What is happening now is that several vendors are selling "accelerator" chips that sit between the CPU and the SRAM and execute the bytecodes for the CPU. This modular design has made it easier to integrate these accelerators into existing designs. The Nazomi JA108 is one of the more successful models from what I can gather.

You still have to run a virtual machine, however with the accelerator chip actually executing the bytecodes you get vastly improved performance and reduced battery drain.

Some of these accelerators are even finding their way into other technologies as well, not just cell phones: http://www.elecdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?AD=1& ArticleID=1916

I could polish up this list a little but Google is your friend too :)

Why?

Corroboration and multiple resources are always good, but Wiki isn't nearly as bas today as it seems.