The lost space craft issue you can just as easily argue that this was caused by one party NOT using the imperial system. The issue there was that two different systems were used, not the imperial system in and by itself.
Why is using imperial units more costly than using metric units? Especially if everyone is using imperial? I understand the issues of mixing units, but as long as you agree on a unit it doesn't really matter how big or small it is.
While technically you may be able to put the sim from your phone in your tablet, it's not exactly a practical solution. First of all, it's a hassle, and most phones I've worked with so far do not allow the sim to be taken out very easily. How easy it is to install in a tablet I don't know. But they're not designed like e.g. USB plugs to be connected and removed easily and frequently. Then, you lose phone connectivity while you want to use your tablet, which is also not nice.
It can be worse - for example Hong Kong is an area where both systems are used.
Flat sizes are measured in square feet. Ground areas usually square feet, sometimes square meters. Screws and the like are usually metric sized, drill bits sometimes metric (diameter in mm) sometimes imperial (diameter in 8th of an inch). Distances on road signs are in km, miles are not used.
Weights is even more fun. Imported pre-packed goods are often measured in grammes and kilograms. Some are measured in pounds (1 lb = about 452 gr). Vegetables are usually sold by the catty (1 catty = 600 gr). Seafood also by the catty, sometimes by it's derived unit the tael (16 tael = 1 catty, so 12 tael is about 1 pound). The latter conversions took me really long to figure out as most locals use the units but do not know how to convert to one another.
China is fully converted to the metric system (having a dictatorship has it's advantages). They still use the catty, but they have defined a catty at 500 gr. Something the Hongkongers don't seem to know - the thing is you just get some 18% less in mainland than in Hong Kong in your catty.
What is even worse, is scientific shows like Mythbusters use BOTH systems. Usually they use metric, usually it's F but sometimes it's C. Weighs usually pounds, but they also have used (kilo)grammes. Distance is usually inches and feet, but when bouncing a baseball they were measuring the bounce in cm - while other parts of the same experiment were using inches and feet.
There is no consistency, and that alone can give rise to errors. It doesn't really matter whether one uses cm or inches, or C or F as long as it's consistent. Forget to write down the unit once, and it's guesswork that's left. Have a thermometer with both scales - oops which scale were we using again this time?
In case of Google (no experience with Apple in this respect - and anyway the linked article is as much about Google as it is about Android), I can think of a few points they can include. I suppose these data points will also be available to Apple for their apps.
Total downloads of course.
Retained install ratio (on my developer console of the Android Market I can see how many total downloads there are, and how many current installs - the number of installs should be a good measure for the number of actual users). Apparently the system keeps track of that.
User ranking: number of stars awarded, total number of votes on the app.
For ad supported apps: the number of ads shown in the app is a measure of usage of the app.
There may be more to it, such as links to an app from other sites, number of views by people browsing the market, maybe even manual adjustment. Maybe take popularity of other apps from the same publisher into account. Localisation: apps that are popular in one region are maybe not interesting for another region (e.g. language, or apps that give info about restaurants in a certain area). We don't know what they really use. But the above list would be my shortlist of data points to use when designing a rating system.
You mean like what happened on Earth, where plants are green?
The oddity about this (and scientists have no clear explanation afaik) that green light is the most abundant, and is the part of sunlight where a lot of energy can be found. I even heard that this is the spectrum where most energy can be found. Yet this part is not used, so actually photosynthesis is far less efficient than theoretically possible.
There must be a reason why evolution leaves such an energetic part of light unused. One quite reasonable explanation is that the green light is so energetic, that it's too hard for plants to handle. But if that's the real reason is anyone's guess.
No idea but then I can think of worse subjects to be taught to children (think "intelligent design" and stuff like that which is pushed in some US schools). Chess is a game, a complex game, that does require analytical and logical thinking, and probably some creativity.
What it has for total impact on their development? No idea. But this is something that I think won't hurt - assuming at least they're not overdoing it, and start pushing kids too much. On a related note, I have seen research that for elderly people the regular playing of mind sports helps offset dementia and generally keeps the brain fit. That one was related to the card game bridge, but as that's a mind sport just like chess or go, the effects may be similar.
In Android an example of double tap is the Android mapping app Locus which uses double tap to show the side bars (in case you choose to have them automatically hidden).
For the rest well there is pinch to zoom, and swipes to move photos left/right or to pan a map. Honestly I don't know of any other touch gestures, really. I just don't know if they even exist. Having some extra hardware buttons compared to iPhone may help in not needing those gestures.
And pinch to zoom doesn't even work in most apps, the Android platform is not consistent there. The developer has to implement it by themselves - it's not as easy to add as the default zoom buttons (which are added by a single line of code). Showing a map using the Google Maps api, pinch to zoom works. Showing an image using the default WebView (which supports zoom, and the default zoom buttons), this gesture doesn't work out of the box, and has to be implemented separately.
Now of course I can't talk for iOS, maybe they have it better. Yet when I see the inconsistencies within Android it becomes clear that touch, gestures, and the UI related to it, are still new and not as mature as the keyboard-and-mouse interface of desktops. Even though Android and iOS certainly do a great job considering the few years these interfaces really exist.
It wouldn't be the first time that rights have been traded, and that after the trade the new rights holder sues for infringement that started long before the transfer of rights.
There have been examples of just that on Slashdot before, related to the music industry. Sorry too lazy to look for references.
My guess is that Righthaven was set up not just to protect the news papers that supply it with material to sue about from this kind of backfire. It's a nice extra.
It's more like an RIAA-type construction, where the company is a vehicle to absorb and distract public anger. After all when there are copyright suits regarding music sharing, it's the RIAA that takes the brunt of the anger. Even here on Slashdot. While in that case it's generally not even the RIAA themselves suing, instead their members, the record companies themselves are the ones initiating the prosecution. RIAA may help, they may lobby for laws helping their case (which is part of their charter of course), and they're a convenient vehicle to take public anger on those suits.
The actual right holders, music companies or in this case news publishers, are not mentioned much. They don't get all the negative feed-back, the calls for boycott. Nor the artists whose work is subject of the law suits get complaints (they are often considered "good guys" even for being robbed of the last few pennies the record companies may have for them).
This kind of constructions suck. I'm all for copyrights, but not in the current form. People should have the right to try to make a profit from their creations, and also to keep control of what happens to those creations for some period of time. Likewise these publishers surely have the right to protect their work - thought surely they also should go about it in a civilised manner. Like sending a formal notice to web sites they deem infringing their rights (that will likely solve the vast majority of cases). Like allowing "fair use" - e.g. snippets of articles with attribution and possibly link to the original. And if they find a web site is copying their articles verbatim without attribution, and the site is not answering to their notices, then it's definitely time for the publisher and rights holder to sue. That's simply their good right.
Copyrights and patents have been invented for a good cause, giving people more incentive to create and invent. And in many fields this surely has been the case. Hard to say what would have happened without patents and copyrights, but I'm sure it's been an incentive for many people or companies to go ahead and put that investment in, knowing that if any good comes out they would be able to profit from it.
I hope Righthaven gets shut down for this kind of behaviour, on whatever grounds. Is it for "sue first, ask later", is it for "only right to sue, no further interest", whatever, it's bad behaviour and should be stopped.
The more these failures are in the news - particularly when it may be noted that people who legitimately bought their games are prevented from playing it, while the pirates were happily playing the game - the better chance that these companies will stop building those restrictions in their games.
Disk in drive? Most of my computers don't even have a drive other than the hard drive. Really, what's the need? Install OS from a USB drive, download everything else. Why much software is still exclusively sold on CD/DVD is beyond me, honestly.
If DRM is not intrusive (remember it's Digital Restrictions Management we're talking about) then there is no point in adding the additional code. It's meant to restrict an end user from doing certain things they normally could do.
For end users, for most practical reasons the license on the code doesn't matter. Most of them don't even know what license the software they use has. They just use it.
For developers (whether professional or hobby) it does matter of course.
Google uses the Apache license for lots of their Android related stuff; Firefox has the Mozilla license; and so there are many more. Those I don't know much about - but am interested to know about. I find the GPL quite restrictive too; BSD maybe a bit too free.
I'm looking for a simple, laymen style, non-legalese write-up of what those licenses basically do. Any suggestions?
Aren't e-mail users who write e-mail considered "content creators"? They create e-mails, and e-mail can easily be argued to be "content". Or is there that much difference between say a blog readable to a select audience, and an e-mail sent to a mail list? From past news messages, it's typically e-mail, twitter, blog, etc accounts that law enforcement is after when they want login details.
Slashdot Mirror
The lost space craft issue you can just as easily argue that this was caused by one party NOT using the imperial system. The issue there was that two different systems were used, not the imperial system in and by itself.
Broken in what way?
Why is using imperial units more costly than using metric units? Especially if everyone is using imperial? I understand the issues of mixing units, but as long as you agree on a unit it doesn't really matter how big or small it is.
While technically you may be able to put the sim from your phone in your tablet, it's not exactly a practical solution. First of all, it's a hassle, and most phones I've worked with so far do not allow the sim to be taken out very easily. How easy it is to install in a tablet I don't know. But they're not designed like e.g. USB plugs to be connected and removed easily and frequently. Then, you lose phone connectivity while you want to use your tablet, which is also not nice.
Very simple reason: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
And while I'm a metric guy myself, and hate having to work with imperial units, I can't say it's exactly "broken".
It can be worse - for example Hong Kong is an area where both systems are used.
Flat sizes are measured in square feet. Ground areas usually square feet, sometimes square meters. Screws and the like are usually metric sized, drill bits sometimes metric (diameter in mm) sometimes imperial (diameter in 8th of an inch). Distances on road signs are in km, miles are not used.
Weights is even more fun. Imported pre-packed goods are often measured in grammes and kilograms. Some are measured in pounds (1 lb = about 452 gr). Vegetables are usually sold by the catty (1 catty = 600 gr). Seafood also by the catty, sometimes by it's derived unit the tael (16 tael = 1 catty, so 12 tael is about 1 pound). The latter conversions took me really long to figure out as most locals use the units but do not know how to convert to one another.
China is fully converted to the metric system (having a dictatorship has it's advantages). They still use the catty, but they have defined a catty at 500 gr. Something the Hongkongers don't seem to know - the thing is you just get some 18% less in mainland than in Hong Kong in your catty.
What is even worse, is scientific shows like Mythbusters use BOTH systems. Usually they use metric, usually it's F but sometimes it's C. Weighs usually pounds, but they also have used (kilo)grammes. Distance is usually inches and feet, but when bouncing a baseball they were measuring the bounce in cm - while other parts of the same experiment were using inches and feet.
There is no consistency, and that alone can give rise to errors. It doesn't really matter whether one uses cm or inches, or C or F as long as it's consistent. Forget to write down the unit once, and it's guesswork that's left. Have a thermometer with both scales - oops which scale were we using again this time?
Interesting tech. Would be nice to see it employed more.
But nothing in the article about transmission speeds.
Or potential distance covered, and interference with other white space devices.
In case of Google (no experience with Apple in this respect - and anyway the linked article is as much about Google as it is about Android), I can think of a few points they can include. I suppose these data points will also be available to Apple for their apps.
There may be more to it, such as links to an app from other sites, number of views by people browsing the market, maybe even manual adjustment. Maybe take popularity of other apps from the same publisher into account. Localisation: apps that are popular in one region are maybe not interesting for another region (e.g. language, or apps that give info about restaurants in a certain area). We don't know what they really use. But the above list would be my shortlist of data points to use when designing a rating system.
You mean like what happened on Earth, where plants are green?
The oddity about this (and scientists have no clear explanation afaik) that green light is the most abundant, and is the part of sunlight where a lot of energy can be found. I even heard that this is the spectrum where most energy can be found. Yet this part is not used, so actually photosynthesis is far less efficient than theoretically possible.
There must be a reason why evolution leaves such an energetic part of light unused. One quite reasonable explanation is that the green light is so energetic, that it's too hard for plants to handle. But if that's the real reason is anyone's guess.
You can not patent a general design, you can only patent a very specific design.
This Apple patent may serve as example. Back then I was also wondering at first "how can they patent THAT?".
No idea but then I can think of worse subjects to be taught to children (think "intelligent design" and stuff like that which is pushed in some US schools). Chess is a game, a complex game, that does require analytical and logical thinking, and probably some creativity.
What it has for total impact on their development? No idea. But this is something that I think won't hurt - assuming at least they're not overdoing it, and start pushing kids too much. On a related note, I have seen research that for elderly people the regular playing of mind sports helps offset dementia and generally keeps the brain fit. That one was related to the card game bridge, but as that's a mind sport just like chess or go, the effects may be similar.
In Android an example of double tap is the Android mapping app Locus which uses double tap to show the side bars (in case you choose to have them automatically hidden).
For the rest well there is pinch to zoom, and swipes to move photos left/right or to pan a map. Honestly I don't know of any other touch gestures, really. I just don't know if they even exist. Having some extra hardware buttons compared to iPhone may help in not needing those gestures.
And pinch to zoom doesn't even work in most apps, the Android platform is not consistent there. The developer has to implement it by themselves - it's not as easy to add as the default zoom buttons (which are added by a single line of code). Showing a map using the Google Maps api, pinch to zoom works. Showing an image using the default WebView (which supports zoom, and the default zoom buttons), this gesture doesn't work out of the box, and has to be implemented separately.
Now of course I can't talk for iOS, maybe they have it better. Yet when I see the inconsistencies within Android it becomes clear that touch, gestures, and the UI related to it, are still new and not as mature as the keyboard-and-mouse interface of desktops. Even though Android and iOS certainly do a great job considering the few years these interfaces really exist.
It wouldn't be the first time that rights have been traded, and that after the trade the new rights holder sues for infringement that started long before the transfer of rights.
There have been examples of just that on Slashdot before, related to the music industry. Sorry too lazy to look for references.
My guess is that Righthaven was set up not just to protect the news papers that supply it with material to sue about from this kind of backfire. It's a nice extra.
It's more like an RIAA-type construction, where the company is a vehicle to absorb and distract public anger. After all when there are copyright suits regarding music sharing, it's the RIAA that takes the brunt of the anger. Even here on Slashdot. While in that case it's generally not even the RIAA themselves suing, instead their members, the record companies themselves are the ones initiating the prosecution. RIAA may help, they may lobby for laws helping their case (which is part of their charter of course), and they're a convenient vehicle to take public anger on those suits.
The actual right holders, music companies or in this case news publishers, are not mentioned much. They don't get all the negative feed-back, the calls for boycott. Nor the artists whose work is subject of the law suits get complaints (they are often considered "good guys" even for being robbed of the last few pennies the record companies may have for them).
This kind of constructions suck. I'm all for copyrights, but not in the current form. People should have the right to try to make a profit from their creations, and also to keep control of what happens to those creations for some period of time. Likewise these publishers surely have the right to protect their work - thought surely they also should go about it in a civilised manner. Like sending a formal notice to web sites they deem infringing their rights (that will likely solve the vast majority of cases). Like allowing "fair use" - e.g. snippets of articles with attribution and possibly link to the original. And if they find a web site is copying their articles verbatim without attribution, and the site is not answering to their notices, then it's definitely time for the publisher and rights holder to sue. That's simply their good right.
Copyrights and patents have been invented for a good cause, giving people more incentive to create and invent. And in many fields this surely has been the case. Hard to say what would have happened without patents and copyrights, but I'm sure it's been an incentive for many people or companies to go ahead and put that investment in, knowing that if any good comes out they would be able to profit from it.
I hope Righthaven gets shut down for this kind of behaviour, on whatever grounds. Is it for "sue first, ask later", is it for "only right to sue, no further interest", whatever, it's bad behaviour and should be stopped.
Anything with DRM is broken by design. The DRM is the intentionally built-in failure point.
Mind that if DRM did not break anything for anyone, there would be no use for incorporating it to begin with!
The more these failures are in the news - particularly when it may be noted that people who legitimately bought their games are prevented from playing it, while the pirates were happily playing the game - the better chance that these companies will stop building those restrictions in their games.
Depends on how the "host authentication" part works.,
Hardware only, or with an additional key that's stored in the host's OS, possibly on a different drive in the same computer?
Disk in drive? Most of my computers don't even have a drive other than the hard drive. Really, what's the need? Install OS from a USB drive, download everything else. Why much software is still exclusively sold on CD/DVD is beyond me, honestly.
If DRM is not intrusive (remember it's Digital Restrictions Management we're talking about) then there is no point in adding the additional code. It's meant to restrict an end user from doing certain things they normally could do.
Goodbye Symbian, Goodbye QT, Goodbye Nokia. Everyone start migrating now, the droids are about to swallow them all.
FTFY.
For end users, for most practical reasons the license on the code doesn't matter. Most of them don't even know what license the software they use has. They just use it.
For developers (whether professional or hobby) it does matter of course.
Risking off-topic mods here but OK can happen.
BSD license I know what it's doing, it's simple.
GPL I also know the basic features of.
Google uses the Apache license for lots of their Android related stuff; Firefox has the Mozilla license; and so there are many more. Those I don't know much about - but am interested to know about. I find the GPL quite restrictive too; BSD maybe a bit too free.
I'm looking for a simple, laymen style, non-legalese write-up of what those licenses basically do. Any suggestions?
Aren't e-mail users who write e-mail considered "content creators"? They create e-mails, and e-mail can easily be argued to be "content". Or is there that much difference between say a blog readable to a select audience, and an e-mail sent to a mail list? From past news messages, it's typically e-mail, twitter, blog, etc accounts that law enforcement is after when they want login details.