Hmmmmmmmmm... How about a gadget that combines a GPS receiver with a SecurID-style method of embedding your physical location, along with your digital signature, into a string of numbers.
The idea is, you're doing whatever you're doing, wherever in the world, on whatever computer. Let's say you're logging into something - you just use the Gadget the same way as we use SecurID cards/fobs today - tap in the string of digits that appears on the screen. Actually, it would have to be longer than six digits. Perhaps using Hexadecimal would be better, although that would mean that the Gadget would need a better display... Well, most GPS receivers I've seen are capable of displaying text anyway.
Anyway, if you do that, the equivalent of the ACE Server (the server that authenticates SecurID users) at the other end can authenticate you and determine where you are.
Only problem is I can't figure out how to make this an open system, without opening it to abuse, in the same way that if we all knew what algorithm RSA use for SecurID, we'd be able to come up with the 6-digit code, simply by knowing a fob's serial number.
Sun's J2EE is making inroads into the financial sector. I'm currently consulting for one of the world's largest banks, and they're making heavy use of JSP, Java Servlets and EJBs in a number of seperate ecommerce/ebusiness-related projects. Tomcat, Apache JServ and JRun are in use for projects using JSP and Servlets, whilst IBM's Websphere and BEA's Weblogic are in use for projects using Enterprise Java Beans.
Using Java for this sort of stuff has a number of advantages, from what I've seen:
Java is an open, non-proprietary language, so coders are easier to come by than when you're using platforms like Vignette or Cold Fusion.
A lot of proprietary software packages deliberately make it easy to hook into them from a Java program (forgive me if I'm not using the right terms here - I'm not a programmer). You've also got JDBC to make it easy to hook into databases.
If circumstances change, you can switch to a different engine/application server easily. So, for example, if BEA decide to double the licence cost of Weblogic, you can just switch to IBM's Websphere or iPlanet instead. That's not so easy to do if you're using a proprietary language.
Portable. Develop on NT/Linux, deploy on Solaris/AIX/whatever.
These guys are also playing around with Cocoon, although I've yet to see it actually deployed.
You'd actually be surprised at how much open source stuff is in use here. I've come across Apache, Samba, rsync, Perl, ssh, as well as the aforementioned Tomcat.
If the hackers release the source into the "wild", we're likely to see a similar situation to DeCSS - anyone who hosts or links to the source code for Windows or any other Microsoft software will have the full force of Microsoft's legal vultures brought to bear upon them.
Wonder if HavenCo would host it. That would mean a real, live-fire test of SeaLand's sovereignty - if Microsoft can't beat them, then noone has a chance!:-)
The guys on the trading floors in certain large investment banks have two LCD screens on their desks - basically similar to this thing, but with two video cards in their PC and some special software to make them act as one monitor. Let's them have the live prices and the Bloomberg sports news pages on screen at the same time (and no, I'm not joking).
I wouldn't be surprised if these things started popping up on trading floors in the not-too-distant future.
..would be for Rambus to just disappear off the face of the Earth, and that includes the customers. Anyone know what it's market capitalisation is and what percentage of the shares are publicly-traded? 'Twould be interesting if the various companies being pissed off by the shysters got together, bunged a few mill each into the pot and just made the entire problem go away.
Might be time for me to dust off the old sniper rifle. Wonder how long a company could continue to exist in any meaningful form if someone started bumping off it's senior officers. And their successors. And their successors...;-)
D. ..is for 'No, I Don't want the job, thankyouverymuch...'
Hah, wouldn't it be funny if this turned out to be an incredibly virulent and deadly infection that began to systematically wipe out the world's population.
the recording companies/RIAA that have a stranglehold on the US music industry
Oh, for fuck's sake, please give me a break. Anyone who wants to can release their own music on the 'Net, as an mp3. Christ, I've done it myself, courtesy of BladeEnc.
Wannabe chart-toppers do NOT need Napster. In fact, I would rather NOT have my choonz distributed over Napster, because I'd rather that people came to my website and downloaded the mp3s from there.
So, if I, the perfect example of an unsigned musician, wouldn't want my music distributed over Napster, please fucking explain to me what possible legitimate purpose Napster has, apart from breaching copyright.
D. ..is for Don't fucking expect me to support something just because some naive assholes think it's making a stand against Evil Big Business.
If I knew what "forzen" is I would probably agree with you!;-)
My point was that, if the lake hadn't been 'forzen' over, the bits of the meteorite would have landed in liquid water and, given it's consistency (i.e. that of "dried mud"), would probably have sort of dissolved or been otherwise eroded.
This has two implications -
The pieces would probably never have been recovered and, even if they had, having been dunked in water would mean that they would have yielded less information (remember that one of the unusual things about these fragments was that they were well-preserved).
As another/.er pointed out, life began in the oceans. The fact that the oceans cover the majority of the planet's surface.. (how can I put this) does not disprove the theory that life arrived on Earth courtesy of a meteorite. To me, it's not hugely implausible that a meteorite carrying life splashed down in an ocean and dissolved/eroded, releasing whatever it was carrying into the ocean.
Of course, how the organism found itself floating through space on a collision course with the third planet, in the first place hasn't been fully explained yet (at least, not to me). The only options I can think of are cataclysmic events which would lead to the break-up of a planet/moon/asteroid which already had life, resulting in asteroids/meteors carrying bits of that planet's biomass.
The problem with that theory is that I would imagine that most cataclysmic events of that type wouldn't leave much alive.
Of course, NASA's discoveries relating to the hardiness of bacteria, etc. have interesting implications.
But, at the end of the day, life had to begin somewhere. Whether it was here on Earth or elsewhere in the cosmos, there was, presumably, still a moment where what was inorganic became organic...
But it would be really interesting to find another planet with life, just to see how it evolved in a different environment.
D. ..is for "Don't sneeze on the planets, dear..."
it is possible that such a meteorite would hit water
No just possible - likely. The majority of the Earth's surface is water (hell, even this thing would have landed in water if it hadn't been frozen) and ISTR that the ratio of water:land has been higher at times in the past.
Any organic matter entering Earth's atmosphere at that time would have been destroyed by the UV radiation, and meteorites would have been sterile when they hit the Earth.
Well, if that's true, then how come the UV radiation didn't kill the first life in Earth? It obviously didn't, because I'm sitting here typing this right now, and I think I'm alive...
Let's say for argument's sake that it was only in the upper atmosphere that the UV radiation was deadly. What if the microbes/virii/seeds/small furry creatures were embedded inside the meteorite? That would shield them from the UV, ne?
Personally, I'm waiting 'til I see the next season of The X Files before coming to any conclusions...;-)
D. ..is for "Did black oil leak out of the meteorite when they started cutting it up?"
Given current efforts to map the human genome and all that malarky, I wouldn't be surprised if the next step beyond checking for hereditary diseases would be to checking for indications of susceptibility to epilepsy or alcoholism, so that car insurance can be "tailored for each individual customer".
Health insurance will also get in on the act, you can be sure - genetic tests will determine how high your premiums are. After all, isn't this just an extension of the standard medical exam you undergo today when you take out health insurance?
As time goes on, I guess the genes governing brain functions will get mapped, which will allow universities and employers to screen applicants in order to ensure that only those who match a certain profile are accepted or employed. After all, isn't this just a logical progression from the current selection method of interview, examinations, SATs, etc?
Once brain functions and behaviour can be screened, we can begin testing people to check whether they have schizophrenic, homicidal, psychopathic or paedophiliac tendencies and locking them up for their own good and the good of humanity.
By which time, I will be leading a group of rebels who don't conform to the genetic norm and face life as second-class citizens.
D. ..is for "Don't worry. This is for your own good."
If you're interested in really extreme computing, check this out. IBM are building a petaflop system to simular protein folding.
I attended a seminar by one of the senior IBM guys the other week in which he covered this project. It's going to be water-cooled, because, to cool it with air, they'd have to drive the air over the system at 140+ kph. Apparently the FAA got wind (no pun intended) of this and warned IBM that if they intended to blast air out of one of their buildings at 140kph, they'd better talk to the FAA first!:-)
But Please do not believe everything you see at the movies!
Don't you think you're expecting a bit much? We're talking about Americans after all. This is the nation where a significant percentage have difficulty finding their own country on a globe...
the invention must be "useful,novel, and unobvious"
Unobvious it ain't. It seems to me that the 1-click patent is merely an online extension of the long-established and widely-used business practise of a client having an account with a supplier and being able to order goods or services without having to supply billing/delivery information each time an order is placed. Instead, you use an account number.
Not to mention that the "client identifier" from Amazon's patent sounds awfully like a cookie to me.
Considering how many hacker-types are making good livings out of the Internet, e-commerce, etc, I think we should adopt a new maxim. Instead of "Information wants to be free" (or "Information wants to be left alone" as Emmanuel once suggested), I propose "Software algorithms and business processes want to be free!"
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I've heard of Bart, but not Barf.... D.