Note that the current Doctor Who has gear which allow his companions to use their cell phones no matter where/when they are...:-) Also, I have the same collection as shown on the clip and it really DOES look like someone today talking on their mobile! I just now checked it out... LOL!
This sort of behavior is exactly why I will NEVER pay Microsoft another penny for any software of theirs. Too bad - I was considering a high-end MSDN subscription this year, but now... Fergeddaboutit!
Some 10 years ago, this idea was the theme of a Star Trek Voyager episode about sub-orbital free fall skydiving. So you have to ask, where did the writer of that episode get the idea?
All I can say is, good luck to them! Another bit of proof that those who can't, manage those who can, and those who are clueless want the impossible yesterday...
Published indeed - I contributed a chapter that contained information about this in the Wiley graduate level text book "Domain-Specific Application Frameworks" published in 2000. Also, the original design and development was part of the effort to build FACTORYworks, an enterprise MES that was designed by a consortium of major semiconductor vendors comprised of members of Sematech, the international semiconductor trade and technology organization. Chaired by FASTech Integration, members of the design group included Intel, Samsung, FASTech, Motorola, etc. This subject, mapping classes of objects to relational tables and all the associated technology was covered in general detail on pages 132-137 in the section "Persistence Classes".
If Red Hat were to need someone to provide expert testimony for prior art in interfacing OO systems to relational systems, I developed such a method in SmallTalk and delivered in C++ in the early to mid 90's. This software is currently running the majority of semiconductor fabs world-wide and the technology is owned by Applied Materials - a company that would likely defend themselves vigorously against a suit by these boneheads.
I think this suit is Microsoft's way of telling Motorola that they aren't happy with Motorola's migration to Android instead of using WinPhone7. Another term for that is extortion...
And they could give their bottom lines a nice boost if they just stopped paying the Microsoft Tax and went with open source software. Just moving to OOo would add at least a couple hundred USD per year per workstation to the bottom line.
The US military and defense establishment already has its own private internet (DarpaNet), along with backbone and such. This is just, in the words of Bruce Schneier, so much security theater. The physics research community also has its own network, PhysNet, that provides high bandwidth and secure connections between major research sites and universities world-wide. Yes, they interconnect to the broader Internet, but they don't carry general Internet traffic and are quite secure against outside hackers.
I like ebooks for when I'm traveling or out of the house. I prefer hard-copy for when I'm in one place for awhile (home). I like Baen's practice of including ebook copies with their hardcover books. I can relax in my easy chair at home with a nice printed copy in my lap, cup of java on the side, yet when I am elsewhere I can take the ebook copy with me on my smartphone and continue reading while at the doctor's office, or wherever. So, I think comparing one format with another is illogical and invalid. Given an ebook costs nothing (or next to) to produce, purchasing a hardcopy book should, in my opinion, include a free ebook copy.
I keep my network guarded by a hardware firewall and virus scanner and do not allow users to "poke holes" in it, even myself. That way, we only need to run firewall software on laptops that may go outside of the company network. Servers that need to be accessible to the Internet do so via proxies and they run a hardened OS such as SELinux with appropriate access rules. Inside the network, additional security software such as workstation-based software firewalls and runtime virus scanners only help to degrade overall user productivity and system performance. All workstations have virus scanners installed that do additional scanning on anything downloaded from the Internet just to be on the safe side, but running in-memory/on-access scanners generally only serves to irritate people and reduce their efficiency.
Back in the 80's when I was working in the Silicon Valley I knew that HP was using pigeons to fly engineering drawing (as microfilm) from Palo Alto and Cupertino over the mountains to their manufacturing site in Santa Cruz (Grass Valley I think, about 50 miles) on a daily basis. It was cheaper, faster, and more reliable than couriers, US Mail, or package express. Don't know what their "data rates" were, but in the years they used it, until they had a broadband link between sites (probably in the 90's) I only remember hearing of one instance when the "package" didn't get through, likely due to an unfortunate encounter with a hawk or eagle.
More complex RFID devices are already in broad use. The ones in passports include your picture as well as other data. I have one used for public transit in Chicago and that keeps more than just an ID. Yes, the simple ones used in most retail products such as DVDs and such are very simple. But others are not so constrained. And then there are the active RFID devices, such as the transponders used for toll roads across the US. They can be read from hundreds of feet away at very high speeds. In Illinois, you drive through the toll lanes at 70-80 mph and their frequency of failed reads is minuscule. Anyway, I also have passive RFID badges used by major corporations that keep a picture, employee/contractor ID, description, authorizations, etc. These are similar to the devices used in US passports, and I can tell you that they are NOT secure!
Just because you don't know for sure that something has happened, that doesn't mean it hasn't. The problem with RFID "scraping" is that you will never know that it has occurred. My instinct tells me that it has been going on for some time. As for RFID in identity cards, passports, etc. I think that their security is mostly, to put it in the words of Bruce Schneier, just theater.
I think I need to tell my sister that we should drink more scotch and less tequila...:-) Time to head down to the liquor store and pick up a bottle I think. Of course, Irish whiskey should work just as well from the biofuel perspective. So, I guess that bottle of Jameson's I got tonight will serve as well?
Yeah. I had to pay a $200 ticket in California earlier this year because of that... It was also in the mountains, and just around the curve after the speed change was a county mounty with radar on. Of course, I live 2000 miles from there, so it was not practical to go back and fight the ticket. FWIW, every time I have fought a speeding ticket over 45 years of driving, I have prevailed. I have only not fought them when I agreed that I was going way too fast and deserved the ticket. Need I say that is not often?:-)
What "Up to" really means depends upon a number of factors, and the type of connection you have (DSL, Cable, FIOS, Satellite) is a big part of that. With DSL, it depends upon your distance from the nearest hub/switch. My business DSL from AT&T advertises "up to 6mbps". However, I get a consistent (barring cable problems) 5.1 to 5.2mbps. Because of the technology used, having a bunch of connections in the neighborhood should not be an issue - all of them go to a switch that is connected to a fiber optic cable that goes back to the central office. Cable is another issue. You will get advertised speeds (or close to it) ONLY if no other connections in the neighborhood are active as they share the cable bandwidth and other connection links. FIOS pretty much gives you what you pay for since it is fiber to your system and the aggregated fiber connections multiplex into very high bandwidth WDM trunks. Satellite is somewhat iffy since a number of people are probably going to share a transponder on the orbital bird. So, DSL should be somewhere close to what you pay for, cable depends upon traffic, and FIOS will probably be the most true to promised bandwidth. I've had everything but WiMax and satellite over the past 10 years and FIOS was the best (not available where I am right now). DSL has been the next best, though its dependence upon copper wires (and in my neighborhood, those are 50+ year old lead cables) is its biggest drawback.
You'd think he would start to realize that DRM only irritates his most loyal (paying) customers. Yes, he "did the right thing" in reinstating those banned, and gained some goodwill by giving them free games, but one has to wonder at what cost. Most people will happily pay for what they use, and object to paying for stuff that they only want to try out. There are better ways to get folks to shell out $$ for your products than treating them like criminals. So, my opinion is that Steam needs to reassess their entire position on DRM with their product line.
FWIW, I worked for many years with a company that produced very expensive software. We considered DRM on our products a number of times, and actually produced some pretty effective DRM software measures. However, we realized that innocent actions and acts of God could disable our customers' systems at times that would cost them (and us) dearly. As a result, all of these "initiatives" went nowhere. What was the result? From startup until I left 18 years later, we grew from 7 people to one of the 60 largest application software companies in the world with over $200M in annual sales. Not a Microsoft or Adobe, but a respectable (and profitable) company that has the loyalty of its customers.
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Note that the current Doctor Who has gear which allow his companions to use their cell phones no matter where/when they are... :-) Also, I have the same collection as shown on the clip and it really DOES look like someone today talking on their mobile! I just now checked it out... LOL!
This sort of behavior is exactly why I will NEVER pay Microsoft another penny for any software of theirs. Too bad - I was considering a high-end MSDN subscription this year, but now... Fergeddaboutit!
Ah! Forgot about that. I read the book when it first came out. There are times indeed when I wish for a third arm like the "Moties". :-)
Some 10 years ago, this idea was the theme of a Star Trek Voyager episode about sub-orbital free fall skydiving. So you have to ask, where did the writer of that episode get the idea?
All I can say is, good luck to them! Another bit of proof that those who can't, manage those who can, and those who are clueless want the impossible yesterday...
FWIW, wouldn't the Java Hibernate framework be considered prior art? That has certainly been published.
Published indeed - I contributed a chapter that contained information about this in the Wiley graduate level text book "Domain-Specific Application Frameworks" published in 2000. Also, the original design and development was part of the effort to build FACTORYworks, an enterprise MES that was designed by a consortium of major semiconductor vendors comprised of members of Sematech, the international semiconductor trade and technology organization. Chaired by FASTech Integration, members of the design group included Intel, Samsung, FASTech, Motorola, etc. This subject, mapping classes of objects to relational tables and all the associated technology was covered in general detail on pages 132-137 in the section "Persistence Classes".
If Red Hat were to need someone to provide expert testimony for prior art in interfacing OO systems to relational systems, I developed such a method in SmallTalk and delivered in C++ in the early to mid 90's. This software is currently running the majority of semiconductor fabs world-wide and the technology is owned by Applied Materials - a company that would likely defend themselves vigorously against a suit by these boneheads.
Broken down into octal values you get 6-271-124-4723 - a phone number perhaps? :-)
I think this suit is Microsoft's way of telling Motorola that they aren't happy with Motorola's migration to Android instead of using WinPhone7. Another term for that is extortion...
And they could give their bottom lines a nice boost if they just stopped paying the Microsoft Tax and went with open source software. Just moving to OOo would add at least a couple hundred USD per year per workstation to the bottom line.
The US military and defense establishment already has its own private internet (DarpaNet), along with backbone and such. This is just, in the words of Bruce Schneier, so much security theater. The physics research community also has its own network, PhysNet, that provides high bandwidth and secure connections between major research sites and universities world-wide. Yes, they interconnect to the broader Internet, but they don't carry general Internet traffic and are quite secure against outside hackers.
I like ebooks for when I'm traveling or out of the house. I prefer hard-copy for when I'm in one place for awhile (home). I like Baen's practice of including ebook copies with their hardcover books. I can relax in my easy chair at home with a nice printed copy in my lap, cup of java on the side, yet when I am elsewhere I can take the ebook copy with me on my smartphone and continue reading while at the doctor's office, or wherever. So, I think comparing one format with another is illogical and invalid. Given an ebook costs nothing (or next to) to produce, purchasing a hardcopy book should, in my opinion, include a free ebook copy.
I keep my network guarded by a hardware firewall and virus scanner and do not allow users to "poke holes" in it, even myself. That way, we only need to run firewall software on laptops that may go outside of the company network. Servers that need to be accessible to the Internet do so via proxies and they run a hardened OS such as SELinux with appropriate access rules. Inside the network, additional security software such as workstation-based software firewalls and runtime virus scanners only help to degrade overall user productivity and system performance. All workstations have virus scanners installed that do additional scanning on anything downloaded from the Internet just to be on the safe side, but running in-memory/on-access scanners generally only serves to irritate people and reduce their efficiency.
Back in the 80's when I was working in the Silicon Valley I knew that HP was using pigeons to fly engineering drawing (as microfilm) from Palo Alto and Cupertino over the mountains to their manufacturing site in Santa Cruz (Grass Valley I think, about 50 miles) on a daily basis. It was cheaper, faster, and more reliable than couriers, US Mail, or package express. Don't know what their "data rates" were, but in the years they used it, until they had a broadband link between sites (probably in the 90's) I only remember hearing of one instance when the "package" didn't get through, likely due to an unfortunate encounter with a hawk or eagle.
Cause and effect - I suspect that this company is going to regret such actions, and in a big way.
It's just adequately irrigated, endowed with sufficient moisture, doesn't require over-watering of your roses...
More complex RFID devices are already in broad use. The ones in passports include your picture as well as other data. I have one used for public transit in Chicago and that keeps more than just an ID. Yes, the simple ones used in most retail products such as DVDs and such are very simple. But others are not so constrained. And then there are the active RFID devices, such as the transponders used for toll roads across the US. They can be read from hundreds of feet away at very high speeds. In Illinois, you drive through the toll lanes at 70-80 mph and their frequency of failed reads is minuscule. Anyway, I also have passive RFID badges used by major corporations that keep a picture, employee/contractor ID, description, authorizations, etc. These are similar to the devices used in US passports, and I can tell you that they are NOT secure!
Just because you don't know for sure that something has happened, that doesn't mean it hasn't. The problem with RFID "scraping" is that you will never know that it has occurred. My instinct tells me that it has been going on for some time. As for RFID in identity cards, passports, etc. I think that their security is mostly, to put it in the words of Bruce Schneier, just theater.
Yeah. And he had a flying squirrel in the car (SUV) with him. :-^ FWIW, it was up in Mono County near the Nevada border on our way to Carson City, NV.
I think I need to tell my sister that we should drink more scotch and less tequila... :-) Time to head down to the liquor store and pick up a bottle I think. Of course, Irish whiskey should work just as well from the biofuel perspective. So, I guess that bottle of Jameson's I got tonight will serve as well?
Yeah. I had to pay a $200 ticket in California earlier this year because of that... It was also in the mountains, and just around the curve after the speed change was a county mounty with radar on. Of course, I live 2000 miles from there, so it was not practical to go back and fight the ticket. FWIW, every time I have fought a speeding ticket over 45 years of driving, I have prevailed. I have only not fought them when I agreed that I was going way too fast and deserved the ticket. Need I say that is not often? :-)
What "Up to" really means depends upon a number of factors, and the type of connection you have (DSL, Cable, FIOS, Satellite) is a big part of that. With DSL, it depends upon your distance from the nearest hub/switch. My business DSL from AT&T advertises "up to 6mbps". However, I get a consistent (barring cable problems) 5.1 to 5.2mbps. Because of the technology used, having a bunch of connections in the neighborhood should not be an issue - all of them go to a switch that is connected to a fiber optic cable that goes back to the central office. Cable is another issue. You will get advertised speeds (or close to it) ONLY if no other connections in the neighborhood are active as they share the cable bandwidth and other connection links. FIOS pretty much gives you what you pay for since it is fiber to your system and the aggregated fiber connections multiplex into very high bandwidth WDM trunks. Satellite is somewhat iffy since a number of people are probably going to share a transponder on the orbital bird. So, DSL should be somewhere close to what you pay for, cable depends upon traffic, and FIOS will probably be the most true to promised bandwidth. I've had everything but WiMax and satellite over the past 10 years and FIOS was the best (not available where I am right now). DSL has been the next best, though its dependence upon copper wires (and in my neighborhood, those are 50+ year old lead cables) is its biggest drawback.
All amounts are us US Dollars:
:-)
1 esata 4 drive raid enclosure - $225
4 1.5 TB 7200rpm Seagate Barracuda drives - $320
Total: $545.00 (including shipping)
Storage using RAID 5 - 4.5TB
Cost / GB: $0.1211 (12 cents) / GB
That's about what I pay these days...
You'd think he would start to realize that DRM only irritates his most loyal (paying) customers. Yes, he "did the right thing" in reinstating those banned, and gained some goodwill by giving them free games, but one has to wonder at what cost. Most people will happily pay for what they use, and object to paying for stuff that they only want to try out. There are better ways to get folks to shell out $$ for your products than treating them like criminals. So, my opinion is that Steam needs to reassess their entire position on DRM with their product line.
FWIW, I worked for many years with a company that produced very expensive software. We considered DRM on our products a number of times, and actually produced some pretty effective DRM software measures. However, we realized that innocent actions and acts of God could disable our customers' systems at times that would cost them (and us) dearly. As a result, all of these "initiatives" went nowhere. What was the result? From startup until I left 18 years later, we grew from 7 people to one of the 60 largest application software companies in the world with over $200M in annual sales. Not a Microsoft or Adobe, but a respectable (and profitable) company that has the loyalty of its customers.