I have no personal experience with them, but the i-mate momento line seems to be somewhat well received.
I'm actually in the same market as you, and my feeling on the market is that none of them are actually very good products yet. The market is shockingly poorly developed considering how long digital photo frames have been around. None of them seem to be able to provide even a minimum level of acceptability without some outrageous gaffe. Widescreen on a photo frame? Terrible resolutions? I just don't get it, it's like nobody wants to give a legitimate try to this market.
"I doubt anything even comes of this even tho it essentially confirms that PC World reviews should be thought of as no more than press releases."
I know it's old hat to complain about the poor quality of editing at Slashdot, but seriously now, "tho"? This is how my 13 year old little sister types in chat sessions, not how the editors of a semi-respectable news site read by millions should write news stories.
In this case, they can't even hide behind the defense that these were the submitter's original words and as editors they can't be expected to catch every little mistake (even though the editors of other sites that have even higher posting volumes like Engadget don't seem to have this problem). In this case, though, this is actually the editor's own words. For shame...
I believe the GSM standards actually mandate encryption. However, such encryption isn't going to do very much to protect you from wiretaps if the wiretapper has the permission from the carrier.
While that may be true, it's mostly a different issue from that mentioned in the article. At least in Italy, according to the article it seems like its a proliferation of over the air eavesdroppers that are breaking the mandated GSM encryptions, which has known flaws.
I was under the impression that digital spread spectrum cordless phones were considered to be fairly secure from an eavesdropping point of view? Is that not the case?
I posted this below in response to another comment, but I'll post it here as well since it seems relevant.
From the article:
What has spurred encryption sales is not so much the legal wiretapping authorized by Italian magistrates -- though information about those calls is also frequently leaked to the press -- but the widespread availability of wiretapping technology over the Internet, which has created a growing pool of amateur eavesdroppers.
While I admit I am only relying on what the article says, it sure makes it sound pretty bad in Italy. That said, from a quick glance, it seems if these things are available easily, it must only be in Italian since I'm not seeing them on Google.
What has spurred encryption sales is not so much the legal wiretapping authorized by Italian magistrates -- though information about those calls is also frequently leaked to the press -- but the widespread availability of wiretapping technology over the Internet, which has created a growing pool of amateur eavesdroppers.
While I admit I am only relying on what the article says, it sure makes it sound pretty bad in Italy. That said, from a quick glance, it seems if these things are available easily, it must only be in Italian since I'm not seeing them on Google.
2. The government would require a backdoor be built in by manufacturers, defeating the purpose.
Well, I'd say a large part of the use of end to end encryption to prevent over the air eavesdropping would be to prevent non-governmental types from hearing. If you're a celebrity having an affair, the government overhearing is probably okay, but tabloids overhearing is a nightmare
If you're discussing protecting information you're discussing from the cops, certainly, any phone is suspect. However, if you're discussing protecting it from eavesdropping by random people sniffing the packets of your over transmissions and decrypting, then as far as I know, CDMA is still secure. Its method of transmission also acts as an inherent level of security, in that an eavesdropper would have to know what code channels to listen to in order to intercept.
And here is the relevant quote, "I'm sick of people claiming parity between the online offerings of these systems so that they can appear above the fray. One of them is awesome, and one of them is dogshit. I don't know why they should ever improve it if you fuckers have already given them the Gold Star." Good points I think. Just because Sony is making online free doesn't mean that it's good, and they have no real incentive to improve it with their faithful already enraptured.
Is this seriously a request for tech support from a single user being reported as if its news? This is really a brave new world of MS bashing.
Maybe there is no "buzz" for this issue because it is limited to only this user? Or even if it affects that entire line of computers, maybe its simply the fact that Toshiba shipped shitty video drivers that crash the system on video overlay or something.
Okay, I'm going to ask a silly question that I'm sure there is a very simple answer for, but I have been wondering about.
One statistic I have often heard from the pro-nuclear crowd is that coal releases more radioactive material that was locked inside them when burnt than is produced per megawatt by nuclear reactors. The thing is we simply don't notice because it's very dilute. If this is the case, then would not a simple solution to the waste problem be to simply grind the waste and eject it from the top of tall smokestacks very slowly?
I love the attitude common on Slashdot where posters come up with extremely obvious criticisms to new ideas posted on Slashdot, and then in an extremely conclusory manner dismiss the entire idea/project as stupid or silly. It's as if they assume that their intellect is so mighty, that surely whatever trivial criticisms they have to make have never been thought of by high ranking professionals whose job is to think about the project.
It is a testament to problems inherent in mass-moderation that you have been modded up in any of your posts where you seem curiously insistent on spreading misinformation. You really should be at -1 Wrong on all of your posts.
Sure, there is no income tax on gifts. However, if I paint a painting, and you make a ceramic piece, and we exchange them, you must report that on your income tax. The fact that most people wouldn't simply makes them tax cheats. This is no different than a dentist doing a lawyer's teeth in return for a will.
Similarly, if I give you a Sword of 1000 Truths, and you give me 100 gold pieces, each of us is subject to tax.
EVERYTHING has a fair market value. It's simply up to you and the IRS to work out what it is between the two of you.
This is not hard for you because you have a grossly incorrect view of the income tax. You get taxed on any income, not just monetary. I'm a dentist and you're a lawyer. You agree to write a will for me in exchange for me cleaning your teeth. Boom, income tax on both of you for the fair market value of the services. And it has to be this way if you don't want to return the economy to the Stone Ages and the barter system.
It does make sense to tax items in game, it just is that we haven't reached that point yet. Spend hundreds of hours in WoW getting gold to spend on things in game? Is using that gold to buy a Sword of 1000 Truths really different from using that gold to buy a piece of software which is equally "virtual"? If you setup a shop in game selling software for gold, should you be exempted from income tax just because you're receiving gold (a cash equivalent) instead of cash?
Deferring taxation until the gold is sold for dollars is equally problematic. There are a huge number of tax shelters out there that exist simply for deferring taxation - time equals money. That money could be sitting in an investment earning dividends for you rather than going immediately to the IRS. The entire benefit of a traditional IRA is that you aren't taxed on the money until you take it out. Under the scheme espoused by a lot of/.ers, where you don't tax until gold is converted to dollars, suddenly anyone can make their own IRA without the IRS' help or permission.
None of the US virtual economies are stable enough that people are using them to tax shelter, but that is a very short-sighted criticism. A number of Asian "virtual" currencies can now be used to directly exchange for goods and services outside of any game context.
Or we could get the government (and people like you) out of regulating this and let the airlines make the decisions for themselves. If you don't want to share flight with people who can use cell phones, fine go to an air carrier that doesn't allow it. If enough people think like you, that carrier will be rewarded by the market.
Meanwhile, people like me who have business to take care of on flights who want to use their cell phones can go to other airlines that choose not to restrict their passengers.
I get the distinct impression I'm responding to a troll, so I'll keep this short.
"And how does Sony/BMG's contractor have anything to do with Sony Computer Entertainment, which is an entirely different---physical and businessological--- subsidiary?"
Are you seriously suggesting that we should further reduce corporate responsibility, and not hold companies responsibility for contractors they hire doing unethical and illegal things in their name?
From the point of view of public policy, this is a horrible idea. The hiring company is the entity in the best position to supervise its contractors, if we don't put the burden on them to it, who is supposed to do it? Further, your stance gives companies every reason to look the other way and to outsource evil to outsiders and then claim innocence.
I too have one of these Samsung units. It's a good tuner. Originally it was a DirecTV receiver with cable NTSC and over the air ATSC and NTSC support for local channels. I got it for something like 20 bucks on eBay and disabled the DirecTV part of it, now it's just a fine ATSC/NTSC/cable tuner box. I'm quite pleased with it.
I think one reason they go for so cheap is because this line had a funny quirk where if you leave it unplugged for a while, when you plug it back in, it won't work at first. All you get is a black screen and/or some clicking sounds. After a couple hours though something in the unit gets warmed up again and it works fine. This issue is well-documented online and easily resolved, but a lot of "broken" units show up on eBay this way.
There is a deduction allowed for US citizens abroad for the first approximately 80k of earnings received abroad, for US citizens overseas at least something like 330 days a year. However, this is given out of the generosity of Congress' heart, and as a general rule, US citizens and corporations are taxed on any income received from wherever it is received, and it just happens there is that carve out. In your case there could also have been a military exception I am unaware of.
It seems unlikely that the winner in this case could qualify for this simply on this basis. Besides which he would have been awarded the prize already by the time he was in space. Contrary to popular media depictions, it's actually pretty difficult to easily escape taxes. This is of course why only the rich are capable of doing so. The government has already plugged all the loopholes that are easily accessible, and the low hanging fruit is gone, leaving only rewards for those with enough incentive to spend a lot of effort to reach them.
Yes, it's not that easy to escape taxes for US citizens. US citizens are taxed on income no matter where they are. This was upheld by the Supreme Court in Cook v. Tait.
The theory is that even when US citizens are outside the country, they are still enjoying the privileges of citizenship, such as the fact that the US would help if they got into trouble, etc.
Depending on one's viewpoint on what it means for something to be constitutional/not constitutional, you could equally be said to be the person who is wrong. If one subscribes to the notion that constitutionality is determined by what the Supreme Court decides, and in a very real and practical sense it is, then I dare you to find a tax law/constitutional law scholar who would really believe your argument has a chance in hell of succeeding before the Court. Thus, the IRS does have authority to collect a direct tax on earnings of ordinary workers under the 16th Amendment.
I don't know much about investing but was curious about this point you are making. Since the trading volume is increased precisely when the scams are unfurling, wouldn't this increased volume be precisely what you need to make short selling possible? There must be a significant amount of volume of stocks being sold at that time for you to borrow one and sell yourself.
Slashdot Mirror
I have no personal experience with them, but the i-mate momento line seems to be somewhat well received. I'm actually in the same market as you, and my feeling on the market is that none of them are actually very good products yet. The market is shockingly poorly developed considering how long digital photo frames have been around. None of them seem to be able to provide even a minimum level of acceptability without some outrageous gaffe. Widescreen on a photo frame? Terrible resolutions? I just don't get it, it's like nobody wants to give a legitimate try to this market.
"I doubt anything even comes of this even tho it essentially confirms that PC World reviews should be thought of as no more than press releases."
I know it's old hat to complain about the poor quality of editing at Slashdot, but seriously now, "tho"? This is how my 13 year old little sister types in chat sessions, not how the editors of a semi-respectable news site read by millions should write news stories.
In this case, they can't even hide behind the defense that these were the submitter's original words and as editors they can't be expected to catch every little mistake (even though the editors of other sites that have even higher posting volumes like Engadget don't seem to have this problem). In this case, though, this is actually the editor's own words. For shame...
While that may be true, it's mostly a different issue from that mentioned in the article. At least in Italy, according to the article it seems like its a proliferation of over the air eavesdroppers that are breaking the mandated GSM encryptions, which has known flaws.
I was under the impression that digital spread spectrum cordless phones were considered to be fairly secure from an eavesdropping point of view? Is that not the case?
While I admit I am only relying on what the article says, it sure makes it sound pretty bad in Italy. That said, from a quick glance, it seems if these things are available easily, it must only be in Italian since I'm not seeing them on Google.
Well, I'd say a large part of the use of end to end encryption to prevent over the air eavesdropping would be to prevent non-governmental types from hearing. If you're a celebrity having an affair, the government overhearing is probably okay, but tabloids overhearing is a nightmare
If you're discussing protecting information you're discussing from the cops, certainly, any phone is suspect. However, if you're discussing protecting it from eavesdropping by random people sniffing the packets of your over transmissions and decrypting, then as far as I know, CDMA is still secure. Its method of transmission also acts as an inherent level of security, in that an eavesdropper would have to know what code channels to listen to in order to intercept.
From today's news post: Penny-Arcade
And here is the relevant quote, "I'm sick of people claiming parity between the online offerings of these systems so that they can appear above the fray. One of them is awesome, and one of them is dogshit. I don't know why they should ever improve it if you fuckers have already given them the Gold Star." Good points I think. Just because Sony is making online free doesn't mean that it's good, and they have no real incentive to improve it with their faithful already enraptured.
Is this seriously a request for tech support from a single user being reported as if its news? This is really a brave new world of MS bashing.
Maybe there is no "buzz" for this issue because it is limited to only this user? Or even if it affects that entire line of computers, maybe its simply the fact that Toshiba shipped shitty video drivers that crash the system on video overlay or something.
Okay, I'm going to ask a silly question that I'm sure there is a very simple answer for, but I have been wondering about.
One statistic I have often heard from the pro-nuclear crowd is that coal releases more radioactive material that was locked inside them when burnt than is produced per megawatt by nuclear reactors. The thing is we simply don't notice because it's very dilute. If this is the case, then would not a simple solution to the waste problem be to simply grind the waste and eject it from the top of tall smokestacks very slowly?
I love the attitude common on Slashdot where posters come up with extremely obvious criticisms to new ideas posted on Slashdot, and then in an extremely conclusory manner dismiss the entire idea/project as stupid or silly. It's as if they assume that their intellect is so mighty, that surely whatever trivial criticisms they have to make have never been thought of by high ranking professionals whose job is to think about the project.
It is a testament to problems inherent in mass-moderation that you have been modded up in any of your posts where you seem curiously insistent on spreading misinformation. You really should be at -1 Wrong on all of your posts.
Sure, there is no income tax on gifts. However, if I paint a painting, and you make a ceramic piece, and we exchange them, you must report that on your income tax. The fact that most people wouldn't simply makes them tax cheats. This is no different than a dentist doing a lawyer's teeth in return for a will.
Similarly, if I give you a Sword of 1000 Truths, and you give me 100 gold pieces, each of us is subject to tax.
EVERYTHING has a fair market value. It's simply up to you and the IRS to work out what it is between the two of you.
You are conflating two separate issues:
Getting items yourself in game, and trading with others for items in game.
Mining a virtual mine is the same as mining a real mine. There is no tax on whatever you dig out of the ground.
Selling a virtual sword for virtual gold is the same as selling a real sword for real dollars. There is a tax on exchanges.
This is not hard for you because you have a grossly incorrect view of the income tax. You get taxed on any income, not just monetary. I'm a dentist and you're a lawyer. You agree to write a will for me in exchange for me cleaning your teeth. Boom, income tax on both of you for the fair market value of the services. And it has to be this way if you don't want to return the economy to the Stone Ages and the barter system.
/.ers, where you don't tax until gold is converted to dollars, suddenly anyone can make their own IRA without the IRS' help or permission.
It does make sense to tax items in game, it just is that we haven't reached that point yet. Spend hundreds of hours in WoW getting gold to spend on things in game? Is using that gold to buy a Sword of 1000 Truths really different from using that gold to buy a piece of software which is equally "virtual"? If you setup a shop in game selling software for gold, should you be exempted from income tax just because you're receiving gold (a cash equivalent) instead of cash?
Deferring taxation until the gold is sold for dollars is equally problematic. There are a huge number of tax shelters out there that exist simply for deferring taxation - time equals money. That money could be sitting in an investment earning dividends for you rather than going immediately to the IRS. The entire benefit of a traditional IRA is that you aren't taxed on the money until you take it out. Under the scheme espoused by a lot of
None of the US virtual economies are stable enough that people are using them to tax shelter, but that is a very short-sighted criticism. A number of Asian "virtual" currencies can now be used to directly exchange for goods and services outside of any game context.
Or we could get the government (and people like you) out of regulating this and let the airlines make the decisions for themselves. If you don't want to share flight with people who can use cell phones, fine go to an air carrier that doesn't allow it. If enough people think like you, that carrier will be rewarded by the market. Meanwhile, people like me who have business to take care of on flights who want to use their cell phones can go to other airlines that choose not to restrict their passengers.
I get the distinct impression I'm responding to a troll, so I'll keep this short. "And how does Sony/BMG's contractor have anything to do with Sony Computer Entertainment, which is an entirely different---physical and businessological--- subsidiary?" Are you seriously suggesting that we should further reduce corporate responsibility, and not hold companies responsibility for contractors they hire doing unethical and illegal things in their name? From the point of view of public policy, this is a horrible idea. The hiring company is the entity in the best position to supervise its contractors, if we don't put the burden on them to it, who is supposed to do it? Further, your stance gives companies every reason to look the other way and to outsource evil to outsiders and then claim innocence.
I too have one of these Samsung units. It's a good tuner. Originally it was a DirecTV receiver with cable NTSC and over the air ATSC and NTSC support for local channels. I got it for something like 20 bucks on eBay and disabled the DirecTV part of it, now it's just a fine ATSC/NTSC/cable tuner box. I'm quite pleased with it. I think one reason they go for so cheap is because this line had a funny quirk where if you leave it unplugged for a while, when you plug it back in, it won't work at first. All you get is a black screen and/or some clicking sounds. After a couple hours though something in the unit gets warmed up again and it works fine. This issue is well-documented online and easily resolved, but a lot of "broken" units show up on eBay this way.
There is a deduction allowed for US citizens abroad for the first approximately 80k of earnings received abroad, for US citizens overseas at least something like 330 days a year. However, this is given out of the generosity of Congress' heart, and as a general rule, US citizens and corporations are taxed on any income received from wherever it is received, and it just happens there is that carve out. In your case there could also have been a military exception I am unaware of.
It seems unlikely that the winner in this case could qualify for this simply on this basis. Besides which he would have been awarded the prize already by the time he was in space. Contrary to popular media depictions, it's actually pretty difficult to easily escape taxes. This is of course why only the rich are capable of doing so. The government has already plugged all the loopholes that are easily accessible, and the low hanging fruit is gone, leaving only rewards for those with enough incentive to spend a lot of effort to reach them.
The theory is that even when US citizens are outside the country, they are still enjoying the privileges of citizenship, such as the fact that the US would help if they got into trouble, etc.
Depending on one's viewpoint on what it means for something to be constitutional/not constitutional, you could equally be said to be the person who is wrong. If one subscribes to the notion that constitutionality is determined by what the Supreme Court decides, and in a very real and practical sense it is, then I dare you to find a tax law/constitutional law scholar who would really believe your argument has a chance in hell of succeeding before the Court. Thus, the IRS does have authority to collect a direct tax on earnings of ordinary workers under the 16th Amendment.
I don't know much about investing but was curious about this point you are making. Since the trading volume is increased precisely when the scams are unfurling, wouldn't this increased volume be precisely what you need to make short selling possible? There must be a significant amount of volume of stocks being sold at that time for you to borrow one and sell yourself.
Maybe I'm really showing the fact that I'm not a member of the "in-group" but could someone please share with me what the word kopimistic means?