This is almost completely unrelated, but it reminds me of a technology I thought was really cool as a kid. There was a barcode reader that was designed to work with special storybooks. As you were reading the story you could scan the barcodes in the book and hear the characters say certain things. Now that would have been a toy to hack. "Mommy, why is the fuzzy bunny moaning?"
This is stupid, but no more so than several dozen other posts here so what the hell...
I remember my friends and I in 4th grade trying to come up with different words for the Transformers theme. The result incorporated the names of characters from several other cartoons popular at the time. This has haunted me ever since:
The Transformers, friends of Rainbow Bright.
Little Orko, can't do nothin' right.
Scooby-doo raids the refrigerator
Starves to death the forces of G.I. Joe!
I usually use a CDPD modem with my notebook when I'm travelling. I still get irritated when my flights are delayed (which is far too often) but I would be even more upset if I was stuck in the airport with nothing to do. It would be nice if I wasn't relegated to a 19.2k CDPD connection, though. An 11Mbit (or even a 2Mbit) wireless connection would make the time go by much easier.
On a somewhat-related note, apparently Northwest Airlines currently has 802.11b running in their WorldClubs lounges at various airports around the world (Minneapolis/St. Paul being one of them). These lounges aren't sheilded and I guess they broadcast their SSID so a resourcesful geek with a notebook should be able to sit somewhere near the lounge and surf the net for free.
Yes, believe it or not, some people actually have paying jobs that require the use of commercial software which often involves visiting the vendors' websites. In case you've been living under a rock since the 70's, Microsoft is a major software vendor with products installed in a majority of companies worldwide. Is it really so strange to think that people might find it significant when Microsoft's sites become unavailable?
When DVD players were first released in the US, the only manufacturer who had a player that would work with CD-R discs was Sony.
The Sony DVP-S3000 and DVP-S7000 were the only two players which featured two separate lasers for playback of DVDs and CDs. Other players accomplished the task of playing Audio CDs by using a lens to refocus the single beam. This lens wasn't able to refocus onto CD-R media. There were even reports of CD-R discs getting damaged by placing them in first generation DVD players, although I've never personally seen it happen.
If Sony is trying to cut costs, they may have gone to the same type of cheap single-laser-based optics that prevented all non-Sony first-generation DVD players from playing recordable media.
A few people have requested ports of the Distributed.net client software for the Dreamcast architecture. Assuming this Linux port would allow you to access the VMUs for storage, this might be a way to accomplish that goal and utilize the DC for something other than gaming. While many people would question the value of such a function, I would love to set my Dreamcast loose on finding Optimal Golomb Rulers or folding proteins or searching for aliens or whatever else floats your boat.
The media jumps all over the "Bad Guys" on the Internet. Defaced websites (especially high-profile ones) get plenty of coverage. I'm curious how the media is going to treat this one. If more public praise is given to these White Hats, maybe the trend can be reversed. A disobedient kid is often looking for attention. If the good guys gain as much notoriety as the bad guys... you get the idea.
I should have included this in the last post, sorry.
For information about current legislation in front of Congress, you may visit Thomas, the US Congress Internet site. You may find additional information on the House and Senate at their respective sites.
For State and Local information, you may want to refer to the Yahoo Government Politics Directory here and find your particular state or locality.
The sad truth is, that won't matter for now, but in time it will. There are countless 'causes' that ask you to write to your congress-critters and tell them how you feel about a specific piece of legislation. Believe it or not, that's a good idea. The politicians do occasionally listen to their constituants. It is a good idea to write to them and ask them the hard questions.
Here's a plan to follow right now while this is fresh on your mind.
1) Find out what legislation is currently being considered. Do this for both federal and state issues.
2) Write a letter to your representatives (all of them) as well as any members of special committees responsible for the legislation. Tell them your opinions on the issues. Tell them in plain English.
3) Write a separate letter to your elected officials. Tell them how you expect them to vote on something and tell them why. Ask them to notify you of how they finally decide to vote.
When the time comes for you to elect a new representative, make a note of how well they followed your directions throughout their past term and vote accordingly.
This ends the armchair guide to lobbying. More assertive tactics exist, but these are the things you can do rather easily without having to get involved with activist groups.
Interface, Applications and Network
on
The End of Unix?
·
· Score: 1
A rose by any other name...
Of course Unix will survive. It will remain a central part of computing for a significant amount of time. What role will it play is another question.
There is no arguing that the Internet was built around Unix. Although Microsoft would like you to believe otherwise, it will remain the foundation for the Internet, possibly forever. It will evolve to incorporate new technology and new methods, but like a true classic car, Unix will retain its soul through it's evolution. From a network and communications standpoint, it isn't going to die.
As a desktop operating system, we'd be silly to jump into this discussion here. Every media outlet with even a slight technical following has beaten this subject to death. Everybody with $35 for a domain registration is trying to "bring Linux to the desktop". How many buzzwords/companies can you think of that have their hat in the ring? You can't watch the news without hearing one of these names, "Red Hat, Apple, OS X, Corel, Linux..." Will it hit the desktop? Of course it will. Will it stay there? Maybe not. As long as the interface and applications evolve as fast as the network support, it has a pretty long life ahead of it.
McCaw, still sees a wireless future?
on
R.I.P. Iridium
·
· Score: 1
According to this News.com article Craig McCaw, an early cellular pioneer who's name is synonymous with wireless telephones, along with his Eagle River investment group recently backed off on their plans to buy out Iridium. McCaw is already busy with sattelite communications, though. He and Bill Gates have backed a company you may have heard of called Teledisc. The plan is to develop a network of low-orbit sattelites designed to give seemless wireless data networking worldwide.
Enter Ignition. Another News.com article mentions the new wireless investment group started by former Microsoft execs and McCaw Cellular execs. About $140 million was initially invested by Qualcomm among others... I wonder if they're considering stepping up to the plate to acquire the sattelites. Could they be thinking about competing against their former figureheads? I know I'd be more comfortable with competition in the worldwide wireless data market... especially where Gates is involved.
It's important to understand how Trademarks work. That is really the foundation for this. This is not a copyright or patent issue.
A trademark is a way to identify the source of products and services. It is meant to protect consumers more than the business holding the trademark. The question of trademark violation comes down to one simple question, "will consumers be confused into thinking a product or service they are purchasing is actually the product or service of a company other than the one they are purchasing it from?"
A very large majority of people shown an eOne computer will look at it and think, "hey, that's an iMac!" This is a very clear case of consumer confusion and it is all that Apple needs to prove in order to win a trademark violation case.
This is entirely different from a copyright. Apple can copyright photos of their computers or the manuals for their computers, or even the software on the computer, but the computer itself is not subject to copyright laws.
Patent laws, while similar to trademark laws, also serve a completely different function... specifically that of function. You may patent a device or process. You can't patent a 'look'.
Here is a good site with links to all sorts of Patent and Trademark information. Recommended reading for most of the people posting here since there seems to be a lot of confusion over what this case is really about.
I picked one up for $279 a couple of weeks ago. Right now I'm waiting for a memory upgrade before I play around with NetBSD on it. Windows CE is terribly slow on this device so I'm hoping the NetBSD port will give me some usable utilities. (the telnet apps for CE, for example, suck dingo's kidneys).
Instant-on and extremely long battery life (8 hours on a single charge) make this a convenient device for those of us who deal with on-call support. A 56k modem would be nicer than the 33.6k modem built-in, but all-in-all, simple support activities aren't too painful at 33.6k. VNC is even bearable.
I have the Novatel Wirless Merlin PCMCIA CDPD modem in mine, but the usefulness is limited in Windows CE since TCP/IP applications for that platform are crappy at best.
Your P133 may suit your needs just fine, however it is not going to have instant-on or the long battery life afforded by the WorkPad z50. The people who will use this aren't going to use it as a primary workstation. It's going to be a slight step above a mobile thin-client.
Celebration is, in fact, the culmination of many concepts Disney hoped to incorporate into Epcot. Celebration, however, does embrace the information age, not just the electronic age. It is a planned community, managed like a business rather than a city. Think of it as a gated community with stricter rules and an open-door policy for visitors (okay, so my analogy is a paradox).
If you haven't been to Celebration and won't have a chance to go in the near future, go see the movie "The Truman Show". While "The Truman Show" was not filmed in Celebration, the feeling is the same. Everything is just a little 'too perfect'... to the point of being downright eerie. It's not a bad place to catch a movie, though.
The cost of a home in Celebration is high, but not astronomical. There are, however, some very restrictive policies you must agree to in order to live there. I don't know if I could deal with having the same yard as all of my neighbors.
I used to teach adult education classes. Part of my training covered the concepts of varied learning styles. The use of color in presentation is very important. It assists people with a 'visual' learning style in information retention. It is also the only one of the three categories the Palm fails in at this point. The other two, audio and kinetic are obvious. A number of people are going to perceive color as a very important thing for the Palm. To look at it from another perspective, however, why would human information retention be an important issue for a handheld organizer. Isn't its primary purpose that of helping people keep track of information so they don't NEED to remember it themselves?
Slashdot Mirror
This is almost completely unrelated, but it reminds me of a technology I thought was really cool as a kid. There was a barcode reader that was designed to work with special storybooks. As you were reading the story you could scan the barcodes in the book and hear the characters say certain things. Now that would have been a toy to hack. "Mommy, why is the fuzzy bunny moaning?"
I remember my friends and I in 4th grade trying to come up with different words for the Transformers theme. The result incorporated the names of characters from several other cartoons popular at the time. This has haunted me ever since:
The Transformers, friends of Rainbow Bright.
Little Orko, can't do nothin' right.
Scooby-doo raids the refrigerator
Starves to death the forces of G.I. Joe!
(I'm going to regret posting this)
I usually use a CDPD modem with my notebook when I'm travelling. I still get irritated when my flights are delayed (which is far too often) but I would be even more upset if I was stuck in the airport with nothing to do. It would be nice if I wasn't relegated to a 19.2k CDPD connection, though. An 11Mbit (or even a 2Mbit) wireless connection would make the time go by much easier.
On a somewhat-related note, apparently Northwest Airlines currently has 802.11b running in their WorldClubs lounges at various airports around the world (Minneapolis/St. Paul being one of them). These lounges aren't sheilded and I guess they broadcast their SSID so a resourcesful geek with a notebook should be able to sit somewhere near the lounge and surf the net for free.
intrigue:~$ nslookup -type=any microsoft.com
Non-authoritative answer:
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS4.CP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS5.CP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS7.CP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS6.CP.MSFT.NET
Authoritative answers can be found from:
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS4.CP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS5.CP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS7.CP.MSFT.NET
microsoft.com nameserver = DNS6.CP.MSFT.NET
DNS4.CP.MSFT.NET internet address = 207.46.138.11
DNS5.CP.MSFT.NET internet address = 207.46.138.12
DNS7.CP.MSFT.NET internet address = 207.46.138.21
DNS6.CP.MSFT.NET internet address = 207.46.138.20
Yes, believe it or not, some people actually have paying jobs that require the use of commercial software which often involves visiting the vendors' websites. In case you've been living under a rock since the 70's, Microsoft is a major software vendor with products installed in a majority of companies worldwide. Is it really so strange to think that people might find it significant when Microsoft's sites become unavailable?
The Sony DVP-S3000 and DVP-S7000 were the only two players which featured two separate lasers for playback of DVDs and CDs. Other players accomplished the task of playing Audio CDs by using a lens to refocus the single beam. This lens wasn't able to refocus onto CD-R media. There were even reports of CD-R discs getting damaged by placing them in first generation DVD players, although I've never personally seen it happen.
If Sony is trying to cut costs, they may have gone to the same type of cheap single-laser-based optics that prevented all non-Sony first-generation DVD players from playing recordable media.
How do feel about being one of the few groups in history to succeed as both a serious musical group as well as a novelty act?
A few people have requested ports of the Distributed.net client software for the Dreamcast architecture. Assuming this Linux port would allow you to access the VMUs for storage, this might be a way to accomplish that goal and utilize the DC for something other than gaming. While many people would question the value of such a function, I would love to set my Dreamcast loose on finding Optimal Golomb Rulers or folding proteins or searching for aliens or whatever else floats your boat.
The Idea Box is just aching for a cage match with those damn blue guys from the Intel commercials.
At 9:38pm Eastern, I'll be on my roof watching the shuttle launch. Come on, you're all invited... we'll do some structural tests on my house.
The media jumps all over the "Bad Guys" on the Internet. Defaced websites (especially high-profile ones) get plenty of coverage. I'm curious how the media is going to treat this one. If more public praise is given to these White Hats, maybe the trend can be reversed. A disobedient kid is often looking for attention. If the good guys gain as much notoriety as the bad guys... you get the idea.
For information about current legislation in front of Congress, you may visit Thomas, the US Congress Internet site. You may find additional information on the House and Senate at their respective sites.
For State and Local information, you may want to refer to the Yahoo Government Politics Directory here and find your particular state or locality.
The sad truth is, that won't matter for now, but in time it will. There are countless 'causes' that ask you to write to your congress-critters and tell them how you feel about a specific piece of legislation. Believe it or not, that's a good idea. The politicians do occasionally listen to their constituants. It is a good idea to write to them and ask them the hard questions.
Here's a plan to follow right now while this is fresh on your mind.
1) Find out what legislation is currently being considered. Do this for both federal and state issues.
2) Write a letter to your representatives (all of them) as well as any members of special committees responsible for the legislation. Tell them your opinions on the issues. Tell them in plain English.
3) Write a separate letter to your elected officials. Tell them how you expect them to vote on something and tell them why. Ask them to notify you of how they finally decide to vote.
When the time comes for you to elect a new representative, make a note of how well they followed your directions throughout their past term and vote accordingly.
This ends the armchair guide to lobbying. More assertive tactics exist, but these are the things you can do rather easily without having to get involved with activist groups.
Of course Unix will survive. It will remain a central part of computing for a significant amount of time. What role will it play is another question.
There is no arguing that the Internet was built around Unix. Although Microsoft would like you to believe otherwise, it will remain the foundation for the Internet, possibly forever. It will evolve to incorporate new technology and new methods, but like a true classic car, Unix will retain its soul through it's evolution. From a network and communications standpoint, it isn't going to die.
As a desktop operating system, we'd be silly to jump into this discussion here. Every media outlet with even a slight technical following has beaten this subject to death. Everybody with $35 for a domain registration is trying to "bring Linux to the desktop". How many buzzwords/companies can you think of that have their hat in the ring? You can't watch the news without hearing one of these names, "Red Hat, Apple, OS X, Corel, Linux..." Will it hit the desktop? Of course it will. Will it stay there? Maybe not. As long as the interface and applications evolve as fast as the network support, it has a pretty long life ahead of it.
Enter Ignition. Another News.com article mentions the new wireless investment group started by former Microsoft execs and McCaw Cellular execs. About $140 million was initially invested by Qualcomm among others... I wonder if they're considering stepping up to the plate to acquire the sattelites. Could they be thinking about competing against their former figureheads? I know I'd be more comfortable with competition in the worldwide wireless data market... especially where Gates is involved.
A trademark is a way to identify the source of products and services. It is meant to protect consumers more than the business holding the trademark. The question of trademark violation comes down to one simple question, "will consumers be confused into thinking a product or service they are purchasing is actually the product or service of a company other than the one they are purchasing it from?"
A very large majority of people shown an eOne computer will look at it and think, "hey, that's an iMac!" This is a very clear case of consumer confusion and it is all that Apple needs to prove in order to win a trademark violation case.
This is entirely different from a copyright. Apple can copyright photos of their computers or the manuals for their computers, or even the software on the computer, but the computer itself is not subject to copyright laws.
Patent laws, while similar to trademark laws, also serve a completely different function... specifically that of function. You may patent a device or process. You can't patent a 'look'.
Here is a good site with links to all sorts of Patent and Trademark information. Recommended reading for most of the people posting here since there seems to be a lot of confusion over what this case is really about.
Instant-on and extremely long battery life (8 hours on a single charge) make this a convenient device for those of us who deal with on-call support. A 56k modem would be nicer than the 33.6k modem built-in, but all-in-all, simple support activities aren't too painful at 33.6k. VNC is even bearable.
I have the Novatel Wirless Merlin PCMCIA CDPD modem in mine, but the usefulness is limited in Windows CE since TCP/IP applications for that platform are crappy at best.
Your P133 may suit your needs just fine, however it is not going to have instant-on or the long battery life afforded by the WorkPad z50. The people who will use this aren't going to use it as a primary workstation. It's going to be a slight step above a mobile thin-client.
If you haven't been to Celebration and won't have a chance to go in the near future, go see the movie "The Truman Show". While "The Truman Show" was not filmed in Celebration, the feeling is the same. Everything is just a little 'too perfect'... to the point of being downright eerie. It's not a bad place to catch a movie, though.
The cost of a home in Celebration is high, but not astronomical. There are, however, some very restrictive policies you must agree to in order to live there. I don't know if I could deal with having the same yard as all of my neighbors.
I used to teach adult education classes. Part of my training covered the concepts of varied learning styles. The use of color in presentation is very important. It assists people with a 'visual' learning style in information retention. It is also the only one of the three categories the Palm fails in at this point. The other two, audio and kinetic are obvious. A number of people are going to perceive color as a very important thing for the Palm. To look at it from another perspective, however, why would human information retention be an important issue for a handheld organizer. Isn't its primary purpose that of helping people keep track of information so they don't NEED to remember it themselves?