I agree. My first thought was in the lines of "it would be great if they actually were in the right, because it would mean that the copyright had expired". As it stands, copyright basically never expires. And that's not the idea behind copyright.
Plants do not deplete the soil as long as 1) you have a healthy soil (lots of insects and worms living in it), 2) you regularly rotate crops, and 3) plough in the unusable parts of the plants (e.g. the tomato plant after picking the fruit). Then you don't need animal poo. Besides we've already more than enough of that.
Then the vegans: well that part I must agree with. When working at a pop club I've met many vegans, especially in the punk rock scene, and man they look bad. Pale faces, skinny, really not good.
Vegetarians otoh generally have no problem. The difference is that they do eat animal products such as eggs, cheese and milk. They just don't eat dead animals (the eggs is a point of dispute: that's an aborted chicken).
The latter has a few exceptions: a very small portion of humans can not or insufficiently synthesize a certain amino acid that can only be found in meat. An ex of mine lived primarily vegetarian, but eats meat once every week or two. She said she started off 100% vegetarian but after a year or so was recommended to eat a little meat as she was not feeling very well. That did the trick, after eating bits of meat she was feeling much.
In case of growing soy beans: a lot. Other posters gave some numbers. Actually for many people in Indonesia soy (and derivatives, such as tofu) are their major and often only source of protein, as meat is too expensive.
But then in large parts of the world, I know at least Africa and here in Asia I've also seen them, insects are part of the menu already. Often considered delicacies even. So they're definitely edible.
A much bigger problem is the efficiency of food production: to produce one kg of meat you need many kgs of other foods. And while some of those foods may be inedible to humans (e.g. grass), cattle is also fed other foods that are grown specifically for them. Instead of growing cattle food, that same land could be used to grow human food, with a much better overall return.
If you're looking at plain food production per hectare (or even per farmer's effort) then meat is very inefficient. Crops that are human edible are much more efficient.
And for the greenhouse effect: the temperature increase is only a few degrees. Quite small differences, with potentially large impact. When you'd think of a similar but opposite effect it's not that crops start to freeze where it wasn't freezing before - the effect is much more subtle. It's more that winters start to last longer, or in case of global warming, that winters become shorter.
Everything is as strong as the weakest link - and in case of computer security that weakest link is usually the human factor.
Indeed in this case they talk about shared passwords. The database may be very secure, but when people having access rights share those rights with unauthorised parties well then security is breached. Which doesn't mean the database itself is not secure though.
People by now are used to having to update the software on their computer regularly. This is not a multi-purpose computer - this is a specialised device. Not many people, if any, are used to update the software on a device - that was until now generally not an issue, if possible in the first place. Even on modern devices it's, in my experience, not that easy anyway.
Point in case: I'm having problems updating my LG smart phone: the Android update software, Windows only, fails to recognise my phone when running in VirtualBox. Windows itself detects it just fine though. No matter what you have to connect it to another computer first, hunt down update software (that wasn't easy! Really well hidden on LG's web site!), and hope it works. It can't be done on the phone itself - it only gives a notice that updates are available without instructions on how to install them. I don't have a Windows partition, all my other Windows needs (e-banking) are fulfilled with that virtual machine. Having to install an alternative O/S just to update my phone... which is Linux based to begin with... ridiculous.
An Internet-TV falls under the "device" class, and as such is generally expected to "just work", and have no way to install software or updates. Like my DVD player, my all-in-one printer, and many other pretty smart devices with lots of functionality. As far as I know there is no (easy, user serviceable) way to upgrade their software.
This attack could render the product unusable at important times and extend or limit its functionality without the manufacturer's permission.
Surely that should read, "without the user's permission".
What's the difference? Don't think that when you buy such a device you're the owner/user in this day and age. You're not. You're a consumer, no more no less. Your only job is to consume content, preferably pay every time, or at least watch the commercials. You may have some influence on what you get to watch, but the manufacturer controls the list you can choose from.
So now get back to that sofa, commercial break is starting in a moment.
While the man may have done something illegal, that doesn't clear the manufacturer/owner of the device.
I don't see why they would have such a "fake jackpot" option installed in a casino floor machine. Such code simply doesn't belong there. Test/demo routines definitely have their use, but they should be kept separate from production routines - e.g. in the form of an add-on software module that can be installed only on demo machines.
If this person has broken the law, he's done something wrong. Sorry about that. Even if he didn't know about the law: ignorance of the law is no defense. You can not say "sorry judge, I may have broken the law, but I didn't do anything wrong so you have to let me go".
What you're probably trying to say is that you do not agree with the law.
I agree that if indeed he was playing the machine the way it was designed to be played with (put in coins/card, press buttons), and then started playing in a way that gave him the best odds, then he should be in the clear. If that's not allowed the law is simply wrong.
Mmm... lemme guess... not easy... the one working anonymously and alone, or the one working for a well known "too big to fail" company... no idea... please gimme a coin, it's a toss-up. Heads says it's the lone hacker, tails says it's not the big company.
I have an Android phone without any mobile data account (I'm not Facebook addicted, just in case you're wondering why no data plan), and can access Google's Android store just fine when connected over WiFi. So if your WiFi tablet running Android can't access the store, it's not because of lack of a mobile data connection.
I don't know and don't care much about the vetting process: the true vetting is done by users. Sort apps by user rating and the good stuff comes up easy enough. And then the user reviews linked to the app on the store are very useful in general.
Also I don't really like the idea of having just one store, which is having a fairly high barrier to entry, and no alternative options. No option to wade through the noise, which can be entertaining at times.
That said I have to say I don't have hands-on experience with Apple's store. I hear many good stories about it, I know the iPhone is considered great by many users (I've played a bit with it and it appears to work very well indeed), but it's too expensive to me.
I like to have a smartphone, it has great functions, and is a great tech toy besides being a phone.
Android and iOS are the only real choices for smartphone OSes now. I don't care much about mobile e-mail so Blackberry is also out. Reading reviews of Windows Phone 7 leaves me cold - it's laudable that it's "much better than Windows Mobile 6" but the reviews that I've seen never bother to compare with either Android or iPhone. That's not promising to say the least.
Android comes on dozens of up-to-date handsets, iOS on just a few (iPhone 4 with a few subtypes). An iPhone costs almost twice as much as what I paid for my phone, and is simply out of my budget.
A disadvantage of the many different handsets in the Android world, combined with differences in screen size, OS version and other specs, is that some apps don't work on certain handsets. It would take really a lot of vetting to prevent that, I don't think Amazon can/will go to those lengths. Also I have heard that Apple mainly checks for "objectionable content" (and still lets the "baby shaker" through - no idea how Google deals with such apps), not for whether the app runs stable.
It's not a matter of choice, it's a matter of noise. When you have a ton of apps like that in an app store it makes it hard to find "real" applications.
Interesting you complain about the volume in the Android store. And you think that Apple's store is better managed, and easier to find apps.
Let's look at the numbers. Apple claims to have "over 300,000" apps in their store now, while Android is reported to have "over 200,000" apps a few days ago. So there are about 1 1/2 times more apps in the Apple store than in the Android store. There is no reason to believe that the average quality in either store is higher, so there are more "noise" apps floating around the Apple store. Unless the store is organised much better, it will be harder to find what you want.
The above numbers, plus the fact that you're talking about hundreds of thousands of apps for each, tells me there must be a lot of noise.
For me the best way to find apps is not to start in the app store, but to search with google for it, e.g. search for "satnav app for android". Then you get reviews, recommendations, etc from various sources. See what other people use, what they think of it, which one works best in various use scenarios. And then go to the store and pull down the app(s).
The Android market doesn't have this functionality by itself. It's really irritating. Nice to have a third party site that helps browsing apps, but that doesn't mean Googles app store doesn't have room for improvement.
I think potentially this could become THE app store for Android, because it will be probably about as carefully maintained as Apple's App store. No way is Amazon going to let through some things like blatant copyright infringement apps that get into the Android store today.
You may make it sound like not having such apps available is a good thing for the end users. I'd say let the end user decide on that.
On my phone I have a "whack-a-mole" type game. I think it's quite funny. PETA/SPCA members may disagree though.
Now if you were talking about a vetting process to prevent malware from entering the store... an app should do what it says it does, no more no less. That's what it should be vetted on, and that's all it should be vetted on. Let the buyer decide whether they want such apps.
There isn't any difference between "video" and "lots of stills taken in short succession".
It's known exactly when the ISS is passing the Sun, so for making such a shot I'd start a short time before that moment and end shortly after, taking a shot every 0.2 seconds (or however fast your camera can manage - this are pretty high resolution images), and you have a couple dozen shots at least one of which should include the moment.
Using data from different sources is of course difficult, especially if those sources are not handled by the same person/team.
But on the other hand, I would expect that automated searches are simply standard part of most pieces of equipment that produce that much data. A modern telescope must produce heaps of data, most of it useless and uninteresting, and way too much to handle for a human observer. Marking events allows the researcher to target those, and then maybe manually correlate to other sources: e.g. to confirm whether there really is a signal, to verify the signal, to learn more about it.
How those searches are done - well that I can't comment on.
Roaming charges are so high because there is no competition in that field. None. You're dependent on your operator - you have no choice. They compete with each other on the local market, not on roaming charges, because - let's be real - some 90% of the telephone users doesn't even use roaming, save for maybe those two weeks vacation a year and then they'd just switch off the phone.
People that have most roaming charges are those that travel for business, and they often don't have to pay their own bills (so they don't care). And companies don't care enough because it's too important to have the phone work in the first place.
Expensive roaming is the exact reason I simply don't have a data account on my phone.
When I'm in my home town, I'm usually either in office or at home, or not long away from both. I've not much use for data roaming here.
It's only interesting when traveling (though hotels these days usually have Internet service included, and open wifi networks are plentiful). But for that purpose the charges simply put me off.
I'm European, not living there now, and would love to see more reasonable roaming charges across the globe. I understand having to pay extra for the service, I don't understand why calling on my home network is virtually free (I pay about E 3,50 for 800 minutes or so!) but when roaming I pay half that for a single minute of calling!
They agree that there is only one China in this world, and that the mainland and Taiwan belong to that one China
There are differing opinions in Taiwan on that topic, I give you that.
The opinion I posted above is the formal position of both sides when it comes to negotiations of economical cooperation, and possibly eventual reunification.
There are indeed people that argue that it should be the mainland that comes under Taiwanese rule, and not the other way around, even though mainland is much bigger of course.
Plenty of lefties don't want buttons switched, as the right-hand setting is what you will encounter at almost any other computer. Better just get used to that.
And for the rest it's indeed sometimes strange that people just don't get the idea that something may be easier to do in another way. It's what makes inventors, that are the people that have an eye for such problems.
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I agree. My first thought was in the lines of "it would be great if they actually were in the right, because it would mean that the copyright had expired". As it stands, copyright basically never expires. And that's not the idea behind copyright.
Plants do not deplete the soil as long as 1) you have a healthy soil (lots of insects and worms living in it), 2) you regularly rotate crops, and 3) plough in the unusable parts of the plants (e.g. the tomato plant after picking the fruit). Then you don't need animal poo. Besides we've already more than enough of that.
Then the vegans: well that part I must agree with. When working at a pop club I've met many vegans, especially in the punk rock scene, and man they look bad. Pale faces, skinny, really not good.
Vegetarians otoh generally have no problem. The difference is that they do eat animal products such as eggs, cheese and milk. They just don't eat dead animals (the eggs is a point of dispute: that's an aborted chicken).
The latter has a few exceptions: a very small portion of humans can not or insufficiently synthesize a certain amino acid that can only be found in meat. An ex of mine lived primarily vegetarian, but eats meat once every week or two. She said she started off 100% vegetarian but after a year or so was recommended to eat a little meat as she was not feeling very well. That did the trick, after eating bits of meat she was feeling much.
Yes... shrimp are for looks the "insects" of the ocean (yes I know they're not insects).
And also what I've experienced while shopping for seafood on the wet market, is that the uglier the animal, the better it tastes.
In case of growing soy beans: a lot. Other posters gave some numbers. Actually for many people in Indonesia soy (and derivatives, such as tofu) are their major and often only source of protein, as meat is too expensive.
If only we could get over the gross factor.
But then in large parts of the world, I know at least Africa and here in Asia I've also seen them, insects are part of the menu already. Often considered delicacies even. So they're definitely edible.
A much bigger problem is the efficiency of food production: to produce one kg of meat you need many kgs of other foods. And while some of those foods may be inedible to humans (e.g. grass), cattle is also fed other foods that are grown specifically for them. Instead of growing cattle food, that same land could be used to grow human food, with a much better overall return.
If you're looking at plain food production per hectare (or even per farmer's effort) then meat is very inefficient. Crops that are human edible are much more efficient.
And for the greenhouse effect: the temperature increase is only a few degrees. Quite small differences, with potentially large impact. When you'd think of a similar but opposite effect it's not that crops start to freeze where it wasn't freezing before - the effect is much more subtle. It's more that winters start to last longer, or in case of global warming, that winters become shorter.
Everything is as strong as the weakest link - and in case of computer security that weakest link is usually the human factor.
Indeed in this case they talk about shared passwords. The database may be very secure, but when people having access rights share those rights with unauthorised parties well then security is breached. Which doesn't mean the database itself is not secure though.
There is another difference.
People by now are used to having to update the software on their computer regularly. This is not a multi-purpose computer - this is a specialised device. Not many people, if any, are used to update the software on a device - that was until now generally not an issue, if possible in the first place. Even on modern devices it's, in my experience, not that easy anyway.
Point in case: I'm having problems updating my LG smart phone: the Android update software, Windows only, fails to recognise my phone when running in VirtualBox. Windows itself detects it just fine though. No matter what you have to connect it to another computer first, hunt down update software (that wasn't easy! Really well hidden on LG's web site!), and hope it works. It can't be done on the phone itself - it only gives a notice that updates are available without instructions on how to install them. I don't have a Windows partition, all my other Windows needs (e-banking) are fulfilled with that virtual machine. Having to install an alternative O/S just to update my phone... which is Linux based to begin with... ridiculous.
An Internet-TV falls under the "device" class, and as such is generally expected to "just work", and have no way to install software or updates. Like my DVD player, my all-in-one printer, and many other pretty smart devices with lots of functionality. As far as I know there is no (easy, user serviceable) way to upgrade their software.
Surely that should read, "without the user's permission".
What's the difference? Don't think that when you buy such a device you're the owner/user in this day and age. You're not. You're a consumer, no more no less. Your only job is to consume content, preferably pay every time, or at least watch the commercials. You may have some influence on what you get to watch, but the manufacturer controls the list you can choose from.
So now get back to that sofa, commercial break is starting in a moment.
While the man may have done something illegal, that doesn't clear the manufacturer/owner of the device.
I don't see why they would have such a "fake jackpot" option installed in a casino floor machine. Such code simply doesn't belong there. Test/demo routines definitely have their use, but they should be kept separate from production routines - e.g. in the form of an add-on software module that can be installed only on demo machines.
If this person has broken the law, he's done something wrong. Sorry about that. Even if he didn't know about the law: ignorance of the law is no defense. You can not say "sorry judge, I may have broken the law, but I didn't do anything wrong so you have to let me go".
What you're probably trying to say is that you do not agree with the law.
I agree that if indeed he was playing the machine the way it was designed to be played with (put in coins/card, press buttons), and then started playing in a way that gave him the best odds, then he should be in the clear. If that's not allowed the law is simply wrong.
Mmm... lemme guess... not easy... the one working anonymously and alone, or the one working for a well known "too big to fail" company... no idea... please gimme a coin, it's a toss-up. Heads says it's the lone hacker, tails says it's not the big company.
I have an Android phone without any mobile data account (I'm not Facebook addicted, just in case you're wondering why no data plan), and can access Google's Android store just fine when connected over WiFi. So if your WiFi tablet running Android can't access the store, it's not because of lack of a mobile data connection.
I don't know and don't care much about the vetting process: the true vetting is done by users. Sort apps by user rating and the good stuff comes up easy enough. And then the user reviews linked to the app on the store are very useful in general.
Also I don't really like the idea of having just one store, which is having a fairly high barrier to entry, and no alternative options. No option to wade through the noise, which can be entertaining at times.
That said I have to say I don't have hands-on experience with Apple's store. I hear many good stories about it, I know the iPhone is considered great by many users (I've played a bit with it and it appears to work very well indeed), but it's too expensive to me.
I like to have a smartphone, it has great functions, and is a great tech toy besides being a phone.
Android and iOS are the only real choices for smartphone OSes now. I don't care much about mobile e-mail so Blackberry is also out. Reading reviews of Windows Phone 7 leaves me cold - it's laudable that it's "much better than Windows Mobile 6" but the reviews that I've seen never bother to compare with either Android or iPhone. That's not promising to say the least.
Android comes on dozens of up-to-date handsets, iOS on just a few (iPhone 4 with a few subtypes). An iPhone costs almost twice as much as what I paid for my phone, and is simply out of my budget.
A disadvantage of the many different handsets in the Android world, combined with differences in screen size, OS version and other specs, is that some apps don't work on certain handsets. It would take really a lot of vetting to prevent that, I don't think Amazon can/will go to those lengths. Also I have heard that Apple mainly checks for "objectionable content" (and still lets the "baby shaker" through - no idea how Google deals with such apps), not for whether the app runs stable.
It's not a matter of choice, it's a matter of noise. When you have a ton of apps like that in an app store it makes it hard to find "real" applications.
Interesting you complain about the volume in the Android store. And you think that Apple's store is better managed, and easier to find apps.
Let's look at the numbers. Apple claims to have "over 300,000" apps in their store now, while Android is reported to have "over 200,000" apps a few days ago. So there are about 1 1/2 times more apps in the Apple store than in the Android store. There is no reason to believe that the average quality in either store is higher, so there are more "noise" apps floating around the Apple store. Unless the store is organised much better, it will be harder to find what you want.
The above numbers, plus the fact that you're talking about hundreds of thousands of apps for each, tells me there must be a lot of noise.
For me the best way to find apps is not to start in the app store, but to search with google for it, e.g. search for "satnav app for android". Then you get reviews, recommendations, etc from various sources. See what other people use, what they think of it, which one works best in various use scenarios. And then go to the store and pull down the app(s).
The Android market doesn't have this functionality by itself. It's really irritating. Nice to have a third party site that helps browsing apps, but that doesn't mean Googles app store doesn't have room for improvement.
I think potentially this could become THE app store for Android, because it will be probably about as carefully maintained as Apple's App store. No way is Amazon going to let through some things like blatant copyright infringement apps that get into the Android store today.
You may make it sound like not having such apps available is a good thing for the end users. I'd say let the end user decide on that.
On my phone I have a "whack-a-mole" type game. I think it's quite funny. PETA/SPCA members may disagree though.
Now if you were talking about a vetting process to prevent malware from entering the store... an app should do what it says it does, no more no less. That's what it should be vetted on, and that's all it should be vetted on. Let the buyer decide whether they want such apps.
Mmm... so the moon just transiting in front of the sun is not an eclipse either?
There isn't any difference between "video" and "lots of stills taken in short succession".
It's known exactly when the ISS is passing the Sun, so for making such a shot I'd start a short time before that moment and end shortly after, taking a shot every 0.2 seconds (or however fast your camera can manage - this are pretty high resolution images), and you have a couple dozen shots at least one of which should include the moment.
I don't really agree with your comment.
Using data from different sources is of course difficult, especially if those sources are not handled by the same person/team.
But on the other hand, I would expect that automated searches are simply standard part of most pieces of equipment that produce that much data. A modern telescope must produce heaps of data, most of it useless and uninteresting, and way too much to handle for a human observer. Marking events allows the researcher to target those, and then maybe manually correlate to other sources: e.g. to confirm whether there really is a signal, to verify the signal, to learn more about it.
How those searches are done - well that I can't comment on.
Roaming charges are so high because there is no competition in that field. None. You're dependent on your operator - you have no choice. They compete with each other on the local market, not on roaming charges, because - let's be real - some 90% of the telephone users doesn't even use roaming, save for maybe those two weeks vacation a year and then they'd just switch off the phone.
People that have most roaming charges are those that travel for business, and they often don't have to pay their own bills (so they don't care). And companies don't care enough because it's too important to have the phone work in the first place.
Expensive roaming is the exact reason I simply don't have a data account on my phone.
When I'm in my home town, I'm usually either in office or at home, or not long away from both. I've not much use for data roaming here.
It's only interesting when traveling (though hotels these days usually have Internet service included, and open wifi networks are plentiful). But for that purpose the charges simply put me off.
I'm European, not living there now, and would love to see more reasonable roaming charges across the globe. I understand having to pay extra for the service, I don't understand why calling on my home network is virtually free (I pay about E 3,50 for 800 minutes or so!) but when roaming I pay half that for a single minute of calling!
They agree that there is only one China in this world, and that the mainland and Taiwan belong to that one China
There are differing opinions in Taiwan on that topic, I give you that.
The opinion I posted above is the formal position of both sides when it comes to negotiations of economical cooperation, and possibly eventual reunification.
There are indeed people that argue that it should be the mainland that comes under Taiwanese rule, and not the other way around, even though mainland is much bigger of course.
Plenty of lefties don't want buttons switched, as the right-hand setting is what you will encounter at almost any other computer. Better just get used to that.
And for the rest it's indeed sometimes strange that people just don't get the idea that something may be easier to do in another way. It's what makes inventors, that are the people that have an eye for such problems.
You could say so. And that is a bad thing. Bad police makes a place bad to live; good police makes it good to live.