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If a TV show wanted to there's nothing Apple could do to stop them.

I knew that farady cage suit would come in handy some day!!!
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Free iPods? Its legit. 5 of my friends got theirs. Get yours here!

Yes, they are. Satellites are actually easier to detect than low-flying planes that hide somewhere in the noise of the landscape. If you have geographically separate send and receive stations for the radar, even the conventional 'stealth' technologies will not prevent detection. Additionally, the spy sattelites are even visible with the naked eye, the problem is to identify them, see for example this article on amateur satellite spotters. Orbital maneuverability of satellites is very limited due to the enormous amount of fuel that would be required for any significant change, so that the spy satellites are extremely predictable.

Not only are the problems not insurmountable, they've already been surmounted. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.02/spy_pr.ht ml Well, at least from visible flares reflecting off the satellites. It's been some time since I read this, and I don't recall the article talking about if they could be detected by radar (not like the amateur would be able to test that anyway, though china could). A quick "Find in This Page" doesn't show much talk about radar either.

Here, I'll help you out. http://blog.wired.com/music/index.blog?entry_id=15 62695/.

At the bottom there, it specifically states that it is not asking Podcast Ready to stop using its company name, as the "services description indicates the mark will be used for podcasting-related services." (last part of sentence plagiarized from Mac Rumors.)

A bit of googling (er, web searching), and class 9 is for computer software. Class 38 is for providing communications services. Apple is protesting the class 9 but not the class 38. Class 38 is appropriate for a company name.

Open to interpretation...
Check this out. Here's the ACTUAL cease and desist letter.
 
Apple merely wants them to stop using the MUCH less generic term, MyPodder. This is wholeheartedly understandable! They explicitly state they are not asking them to stop using their company name, Podcast Ready. See the bottom of the second-to-last paragraph, page two.
 
I wish that the editors would check what they're submitting before they do. Especially with that last dupe about the supercapacitors ;)

Come on, had to make this into an anti-Sony argument. Just wouldn't feel right.

I'd be happy to oblige...

Sony, in fact, HAS vigourously defended its "walkman" trademark right from the beginning (right from the beginning, not "a couple of decades late"--I remember when Sony went after a Canadian electronics store for advertising a sale on "personal stereos" made by Sony's competitors as a "Walkman Sale" back in the mid 1980s). Sony is amongst the most agressive defenders of trademark in the world, and unfortunately it seems Apple is following in its footsteps and threatening a world of hurt for anyone naming their handheld products /*pod*/ or /^i*/.

I understand why Apple defends their industrial designs as they are tangible characteristics of Apple products and a lot of time, effort and money is put into the look, shape and usability features. It seems really unfair that Apple should spend so much time making a Mac look like a Mac just to have some goofily-named Taiwanese plastics company barf out replica cases jury-rigged to accomodate generic PC motherboards. But claiming ownership of the word "pod" or the 9th letter of the alphabet? That is just petty and greedy. Compete on the merits of your product, not on some silly brand name, and let the fledgling market for accessories to your products thrive. Sure brand dilution is a valid concern, but lets be realistic--Xerox is still around even as its coporate marque bacame a noun and verb in the dictionary. Kimberly-clark continues to make a lot of money with Kleenex even though everyone calls all sorts of other tissues Kleenex out of habit and Google continues to thrive even as its identity has come to mean "search the internet" in general.

Sometimes a little brand dilution can be a good thing. Yes, I understand Apple wants to make sure some cheap-ass purveyor of junky accessories doesn't pretend to be affiliated with Apple but there are other approaches to take. For example licensing terms could be kept relaxed and Apple could have a little "Apple approved" logo for 3rd party manufacturers (like "intel inside" or the "VHS logo" or "Designed for Windows"). Consumers would then know it was a 3rd party product but that it met Apple's quality standards...and forget about fighting the junky stuff unless they fraudulently use the "Apple approved" logo. Done right this can work quite well--it helped VHS beat Beta for example. Let "Podcasting" and "iThingy" and "PodPouch" and whatever other pod-wannabes and i-philes survive and thrive.

In the abcense of common sense though, let me propose an alternative to the word "podcasting". "Audcasting" and "vidcasting" are even dumber sounding and limiting (it implies only moving video or sound, not a combination of media). "Zunecasting" just helps Microsoft marketing and MS needs none of our help there. So, how about PEERCASTING. The term BROADCASTING covers all sorts of media distributed from one central point to widespread areas simultaneously, so PEERCASTING would be an apt description of what we call podcasting now--distribution of media from one point to other, individual points on-demand. Peercastig is already used by a few people to refer to distribution via BitTorrent or other P2P networks and podcasting isn't THAT far off in overall concept.

But some problem could be that /. has a funny understanding of editing. Here's my original submission:

While news are out that Apple wants to stop companies from using terms like "podcast" or "pod", Wired has the complete text of Apple's cease-and-desist letter to Podcast Ready. Obviously Apple is under the delusion that people call their iPods not, well "iPod",but instead just "Pod". I suggest all /.ers write a nice and polite letter to Apple pointing out that iPods are still referred to as iPods.

If Zonk didn't like my wording he could have stripped my name too :-/

Read the actual cease-and-desist letter.

Apple is asking the company to stop using the term "MyPodder". They explicitly state they are not asking them to stop using their company name "Podcast Ready" (see the bottom of the second-to-last paragraph, page two).

Is it too much to ask that the editors read the actual story before approving it?

This article is more topical than most people think because it ties into a current legislative fight about Low Power FM (LPFM) radio.

Partly in response to a legal case in which this same Stephen Dunifer was acquitted from FCC prosecution by pointing out that the FCC had not provided a mechanism for him to get a valid licence, the FCC created a Low Power FM service in 2000. http://www.diymedia.net/feature/micro/f100901.htm describes this process in Michigan and Washington DC. Congress then rushed to gut this service by limiting the number of locations that could get these licenses (by increasing the required spacing in frequency between LPFM stations and other FM stations the third adjacent rule http://www.prometheusradio.org/low_power_radio/bac kground/some_facts_about_low_power_fm.html [at the bottom]). They did this even though FCC tests demonstrated that this was not necessary. As the above link suggests, there are also currently many radio stations that do operate at the closer frequency spacing without problems.

In 2004 a report commissioned by congress as part of the don't-allow-new-stations-we need-more-study legislation was released (Mitre report). This report suggested that the frequency specifications could be relaxed. There are now bills in congress (House Bill 3731, Senate Bill 312) to relax these restrictions. Currently two FCC commissioners (Copps and Adelstein) are traveling around taking public comments abut this and other public issues.

If either the increasing concentration media ownership or the sameness of radio programming bother you, it might be wise to let your congress people know that you care about these issues

since the site is slashdotted, but the description is

> takes the form of a thin, bald man with yellow glasses who wears a white turtleneck sweater.

it could be describing Steve Jobs,
http://www.wired.com/news/images/full/7630571_f.jp g

but they craftily have switched the colour of his turtleneck so that
you will always know which one is the chatbot and which one is the real person.

Grow them. (Just published on Wired's site.)

We live in the Age of Information. Almost anyone can't post almost anything and make it available to just about everyone (how's that for ambiguos). This is great power. And with great power come great repsonsability (bet you didn'see that coming).

I think the problem may lie in he fact that too many companies don't teach their employees the difference between the internet and their intranet.
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Free iPods? Its legit. 5 of my friends got theirs. Get yours here!

Even with these great tools (and believe me I myself love this),I think the underlying problems willnot change.

1. Just because we can doesn't mean we will.

We have had out feet and a telephone for quite a while now but ordinary citizens rarely make it to town council meetings let a lone make a call to voice their opinion.

and, 2. Even if they did, since when to the politicians ever really listening to their constituants.

Hope this post wasn't too much of a downer. Have a great day.
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Free iPods? Its legit. 5 of my friends got theirs. Get yours here!

Wired covered this idea in 2001. http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/9.01/meter.html Dissapointingly, the winner of the contest, the Wattbug, as well as the runners up, nothing has come onto the consumer market as a result.

I mentioned this on the last post about the Zune. The only way MS can gain marketshare is to come in well below the iPod price. If it is a better product, all the specs will just fly over the heads of most consumers. iPod is "the" MP3 player to the masses and the only thing that will convince them otherwise is price.
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Free iPods? Its legit. 5 of my friends got theirs. Get yours here!

I don't mind all the eye candy. Some if it's new, some not. But the thing that baffles me is that Microsoft needs the equivalent of a super computer's worth in graphics processing to make the stuff work. I haven;t seen anyting that I feel warrant that kind of power. Have you seen OpenGL? All the eye candy, and it runs on my old laptop.

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Free iPods? Its legit. 5 of my friends got theirs. Get yours here!

When you are able to physically distance yourself from the physical aspect of things (you know actually talking to someone), many people seem to be able to overcome their inhibitions. This is a positive thing for many people who for some reason or another have a diffucult time being themselves around others. Of course this distancing also has the power to bring out the idiot in many of us too (you know who you are)!!!
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Free iPods? Its legit. 5 of my friends got theirs. Get yours here!

Own Criminal Acts.

Hamdi v Rumsfeld calls for a need for 'Military Tribunals' so as to ensure that when they 'goof' it's under strictest cover, and no-one will ever know what happened.

Is it any accident the CIA is CIA (Covering Its Ass)?

Gonzales is looking to legitimize the fact that the .gov has already been caught with it's hands in the til...

The abuses of The Constitution are being watched by everyone, everywhere. What was once the beacon of hope and bastion of freedom for the whole world is being trashed by criminals and oligarchs who seek to douse its light once and for all. The abuses against the American public must be arrested at the earliest possible juncture.

The truly frightening thing is that you can't even trust your democratic process anymore. So who's the terrorist? Where does he live?

Even Republicans can't deny the fact that it's getting out of hand.

Just today: On Tuesday, President Bush said, "Freedom, by its nature, cannot be imposed -- it must be chosen. From Beirut to Baghdad , people are making the choice for freedom.

Some choice.

Maybe Metallica would be interested in this fine venture!!!!
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Free iPods? Its legit. 5 of my friends got theirs. Get yours here!

This is the type of elitist attitude that will keep normal users from adopting Linux. The live CD is one of the best ways to prove Linux's viability as a Desktop OS. I can't count the number of Linux users I know that didn't first try it out on a live CD. "...to the point that anyone could do it...", isn't that the idea?
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Free iPods? Its legit. 5 of my friends got theirs. Get yours here!

If you think a lobbyist is a good choice for a homeland security position, consider what his group has lobbied for.

In a conference call with voting machine makers, the ITAA proposed conducting a campaign on their behalf, in exchange for $100,000 to $200,000 per company, depending on the services provided.

The ITAA president told Computerworld that criticism of voting machines was just a "religious war".

Ah look at Microsoft trying to appeal to the masses. How cute. Sounds to me more like an excuse because they have no mechanism in place for delivering media for this device.
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Free iPods? Its legit. 5 of my friends got theirs. Get yours here!

Be grateful, things could be worse. At least these batteries don't install a rootkit and then spontaneously combust. Sony, Sony, Sony, its a good thing your so loaded. A smaller company would been dust by now.
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Free iPods? Its legit. 5 of my friends got theirs. Get yours here!

As with their french speaking breathren, Quebec has some funny notions. That is why some girl was able to successfully sue a photographer for taking her picture while she was sitting in a public place. It doesn't say in this article, but from what I can remember of it (it was a few years ago), she was a homeless person, and the photographer was doing some sort of editorial piece for some publication. I had to shake my head a groan when I read it the first time... actually, I still do even when I read it now.

Both your's and the grandparent post are correct. Cheating can help the individual to survive. Cooperation can help the group to survive (and thereby, help the individual to survive). Getting caught cheating can reduce the individual's survival rate either directly, by being killed for cheating, or indirectly by losing the cooperation of others. Individuals who cooperate are rewarded with reciprocal cooperation, those who cheat are punished by being cheated upon (or disregarded).

So hidden cheating can certainly be successful, but it must be balanced against the consequences and against the chance that it will advance the individual at the cost of the group (too much cheating might destroy the system).

The Prisoners Dilemma puzzle has resulted in an interesting examination of strategies. One competition turned up what some might call a cheater, a program that cooperates with other instances of itself to sacrifice many of the instances so that a few could excel.

This one is really going to confuse my Mom!!!
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Free iPods? Its legit. 5 of my friends got theirs. Get yours here!

This is old news; very old news. This technology was in working form in October, 2003: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,61009, 00.html

"it is a bit worrisome to use a product that is totally open for all the worlds eyes and ears to see"

Most of the worlds governments also have full access to the Windows source code including China.

"MS has worked quite well for most things that the military has needed in the past. At least it was when I was in"

Sunk by Windows NT

was Re:For one, fear of being too open.

From Wired, 2004:

"The ultimate iPod accessory is Fendi's Juke Box, a $1,500 carrying case for transporting multiple iPods."

"German designer and iPod fanatic Karl Lagerfeld . . . now owns 40 iPods, according to the latest issue of French Elle. Modeling a silver jogging suit, Lagerfeld confesses to owning 40 of the devices. Although at first glance the reader may assume he means a single 40-GB iPod, he meant what he said: He has 40 iPods.

"Lagerfeld has converted his collection of 60,000 compact discs to a unique iPod storage system, according to a recent report in Womens Wear Daily. Lagerfeld keeps most of the iPods scattered around his various homes, which, in turn, are scattered around the globe. "

The photo is just priceless too.

From Wired, 2004:

"The ultimate iPod accessory is Fendi's Juke Box, a $1,500 carrying case for transporting multiple iPods."

"German designer and iPod fanatic Karl Lagerfeld . . . now owns 40 iPods, according to the latest issue of French Elle. Modeling a silver jogging suit, Lagerfeld confesses to owning 40 of the devices. Although at first glance the reader may assume he means a single 40-GB iPod, he meant what he said: He has 40 iPods.

"Lagerfeld has converted his collection of 60,000 compact discs to a unique iPod storage system, according to a recent report in Womens Wear Daily. Lagerfeld keeps most of the iPods scattered around his various homes, which, in turn, are scattered around the globe. "

The photo is just priceless too.

"Like the Nintendo DS, the Wii will be able to play games from other regions, such as Japan, without any restriction. Kaplan implied there might be a region lock that publishers would be able to flip on, but it doesn't sound like the first-party titles from Nintendo will be restricted." - Joel Johnson, Wired

In a Wired article from last year, Bruce Schneier said some very sensible things on this subject:

Push the responsibility -- all of it -- for identity theft onto the financial institutions, and phishing will go away. This fraud will go away not because people will suddenly get smart and quit responding to phishing e-mails, because California has new criminal penalties for phishing, or because ISPs will recognize and delete the e-mails. It will go away because the information a criminal can get from a phishing attack won't be enough for him to commit fraud -- because the companies won't stand for all those losses.

I think this is absolutely right. Faced with the financial losses of phishing, banks will simply institute procedures, technologies and processes to protect against fraudulent financial TRANSACTIONS. Doubtless, banks will gripe and complain about their new liability. But it was exactly this same liability that made personal credit cards viable - and gave birth to a multi-billion dollar industry.

"Record companies are keen to avoid repeating the mistake they believe they made when Viacom's MTV was set up 25 years ago -- allowing their artists' music to be aired for free. Morris in his remarks to investors Tuesday said MTV "built a multibillion-dollar company on our (music) ... for virtually nothing. We learned a hard lesson.""

Not unlike how the record companies built a multibillion-dollar business on the artists music for virtually nothing. Oh the irony.

I think there is great future in bionics. In addition to limbs as discussed in this submission, scientists have various approaches to bionic sight as well. This subject is truly fascinating. Here is a BBC article on a different project.

Interestingly and unfortunately, much advanced and successful bionics research is being done in South America because of restrictive laws in more typical countries. While I understand the need to protect patients, research for a paper I wrote two years ago indicates that the most successful scientists are pragmatically drawn away from first-class research institutes.

so not taking threats seriously - and personally - is pretty damned stupid.

Actually, I would say that over-reacting and ignoring probability is pretty damned stupid. For example, did you know that more people were killed by law enforcement officials than terrorists in the US over the past 10 years?

Terror attacks are not the most pressing danger you or I face on a daily basis.

When is the last time you were directly threatened by a "islamofacist"?

Yup, me neither.

Gues we know the answer to that question, then.

Yes, exactly. Statistically speaking, you're more likely to be shot to death by a domestic police officer, than die as the result of a terrorist attack. And many times more likely to die in a car accident or as a result of a fall.

Terrorism IS a real threat, but if you look at the "big picture" it's hardly a significant one for any given individual. I expect most
people need fear being struck by lightning more than they need fear terrorism.

If you have nothing to hide, then why are you complaining, citizen? Only the tourists have to worry!

The Eternal Value of Privacy -By Bruce Schneier

I agree, regarding the poor analogy in TFA. People's mistrust of Internet reliability is more akin to the mistrust of optical character recognition rather than photocopying. Does/would anyone not proofread important documents scanned and interpreted by their OCR software?

Although it's been awhile, some of us do remember outages at MAE-West (1998, 2000, for example) which slowed the Internet to a crawl for many people. So, that mistrust is not without basis.

Most importantly, though, it's not just availability (or the lack thereof) that breeds distrust in third-party web application services. There are also issues of privacy, accountability, quality of service, and control, just to name a few.

You might end up getting fragged by an eight year old.

According to this article, the plant uses 1/3 of the electricity generated to power itself. So, in all due likelyhood, the trash is going to be used to burn more trash.

The "hook" was Shatner projecting his infamous ego throughout the show, taking credit for all of it.

Now, IANAB, but from what I understand of this, Sony is in the black.

Well, not only PS3 is dragging Sony further down its doom, but it is even expected as a means to 'save it' ( Can the PS3 Save Sony ) ..

Check out the image.

"The primary argument for patents is that innovation should be rewarded . . ."

Actually, this is from a story that was broken some time ago and is commonly known about. See this article on Wired or this article on Slashdot.

close ... amex decided that you can't buy on-line pr0n with your card...

Wired ran a story similar to this one last year about a Sanyo 5500 phone that had the ability to upload photos and movies to the Sprint site.

What particularly drivs me batty is that they just hired Douglas Bowman as Visual Design Lead in May. He's been at the head of the XHTML/CSS progression/revolution for years, including the Wired News redesign in 2002.

I understand that it takes some time to get settled into a new workforce, so Bowman might not have had the time to get around to working on Blogger that much yet. According to his blog, he appears to have spent the first half of this year working as a contractor on Google Calendar. I just wonder, why wouldn't the Blogger team have waited until their Design guy/standards-compliance guru was free before rolling out this beta?