Is there any reason that Matsushita needs to meet US *EXPORT* restrictions? Why can't they design the "best" product (from their RIAA-influenced point of view) and ship it *TO* the states?
Sure, RCA won't be allowed to ship a jukebox out of the country, but Matsushita would be allowed to ship anywhere. Unless you also make it illegal to IMPORT strong encryption as well.
If you want security, you give EACH DVD a random key that your player contacts the manufacturer to discover and the key is based on a timestamp algorithm or something that would prevent anyone but a crypto expert from bothering.
I started to write the same comment. We haven't thought out all the implications of cheap full-time internet access. The recent Real-Networks privacy blowup was probably a baby step towards such a pay per listen concept.
I withdrew my comment before posting when I realized that full-time internet will not be available from your BMW in some ski valley in Colorado. If they want to sell super-upscale versions of this kind of thing, it will need to fit into cars. And a lookup-at-time-of-play key is not going to fit into cars for another several years.
Both my local cable modem (Wave via Rogers) and ADSL (many ISPs via Telus) suppliers apparently have contracts allowing them to charge for traffic beyond a certain number of gigabytes. My inability to forecast which of them will start charging first is one of the main reasons I am still using a phone modem. Once either cable or ADSL start charging for traffic, I will sign up with THE OTHER. But I'm told that both have the language in the contracts.
They just aren't USING that part of the contract. So far as I can tell, nobody on either (of our local) networks is being charged for volume.
Re:About mouse usage with keyboard
on
Interface Zen
·
· Score: 1
There was an ultrasound reflector on a headband I saw once. It was aimed at the Amiga market. You moved the mouse with your forehead. I expect that the reason it was never adopted related to the lack of buttons. You still had to reach your thumb to tap the buttons clamped to the bottom edge of your keyboard.
He abhors the chorded combos. But then he includes a link to a keyboard that eliminates the penalty zone entirely. I have no problem reaching for the keypad or the cursor keys without looking at them. They are just THERE, like the 90% of a piano that isn't right under your hand at any moment. (He despises the loss of the control keys, but says NOTHING about the morons who replaced a numeric keyboard with abstruse and specialized control functions and propagated that as "terminal emulation". Where'd the numbers go? Numbers do not belong in a thin stripe that takes BOTH hands!)
Vi may be a good video game for him, but I have other deep connections to my code. I like the low control because of the symmetry between the two hands. I want a keyboard with good feel, low control key, but drop the three vanity keys from my current one.
I was hired by a heavy-industrial company as a mainframe programmer. They quoted me an annual salary, but I am entered into all their systems as an hourly wage, and the hourly wage is shown on my semi-weekly direct deposit statement.
I get my pay based on a 37.5 hour week, not including lunches. I get "appropriate" breaks for coffee or whatever. The company covers jury duty, doctor visits, dentist, etc. I get time and a half for any hours between 7.5 and 11. I get double time over 11. I get 1.5X (double after 11)time for the second day I work on a weekend, even if I only came in for a short trouble call on the Saturday and worked 8 hours on Sunday.
With my current supervisor, I control my own hours. She takes my word for my net time per week, and I keep an Excel "timeclock" for my own tracking. If I don't feel like working, I can leave early. If I work late, I can "casually bank" in my own records, or formally file the overtime. For formal overtime, we choose once a year whether we will be collecting replacement time off (at the multiplied rate) or cash.
One of the commercial products will bury your secret file into a WAV file, taking up to half of the file as apparent hiss behind the material you recorded. Even knowing the algorithm, there is no way to see that there even IS data there until you apply the algorithm WITH THE CORRECT PHRASE.
(These claims from the publisher's website. Too bad that I forget who the publisher was.) Does this sound similar to what you are talking about?
Google: knows nothing. AltaVista: Three hits. TWO of them are mow mispointing to a Hillary Clinton story, the other mispointing to a non-relevant page. Yahoo still has a link to the original site, which of course says "Forbidden.. no permission". Ask Jeeves seems to choke on it, showing the three dead Altavista links and misformatting the rest of the page. Dogpile.com found a reference to the original page on goto.com, and nothing else
So, Alt.conspiracy has a new topic of conversation, a budding artist gets his name spattered onto the big time. Nothing like a government stomp to get people watching.
But this NEEDS watching. A government that feels the need to stomp needs to be watched carefully. I thank those who brought this to our attention.
I'm told that the DVD standard was hackable partly because of mandatory weakening of exportable products from the US. Will the next generation of players come from Japan or Germany and ignore US limits entirely?
Now, I like the fact that DVD is now just data stored on a medium. But I suspect Hollywood is wishing that they had bought into a non-USA standard that was allowed to be as strong as the builders wanted it to be.
I heard a local Staples (?) ad on the radio on sunday pushing "Microsoft Gifts for Geeks". The way that they were saying it, you could hear the capitals.
Just remember whether or not you enjoyed being single, before giving your geek Microsoft stuff (grin)
You need to be made aware of it if someone is going to read your mail.
My employer makes me sign a form periodically (every couple of years?) that I'm aware that all email sent from a company account is company property and might be read.
Without a signed permission, I don't want anyone reading my mail.
This seems to be a generational thing. My generation thinks of ourselves as "nerds" and considers "geek" to be an offensive word. The young bucks chasing us all aspire to be "alpha geek".
I'm not sure that the shipping companies mind us knowing how hard the packages are tossed. I saw a knowledge network item discussing a fedex parcel sorting installation once, and a battering ram punched the box off the conveyer into a sorting bin at shockingly high speed. And that was in an item that FELT like a promotional fluff piece.
Perhaps the bulk of their customers would rather ship faster and cheaper, and handle the prospective damage through better packing?
Do we care where they hold the insurance? To me, if the parcel arrives in three pieces, they will pay for it. Or not. Depending on whether it was "insured".
Do I care where they keep the money in the meantime?
"12:34:56 on 7/8/90 ? (following American date "standard, July 8th). or, for others. August 7th. "
Drat. I use yymmdd, and there was no 76th month in 98. Neither was there a Julian day 765.
My billionth second fell early in the evening on New Year's eve one year. I celebrated hard that year! (Nobody was willing to buy me drinks for my 33 and 4 months birthday a couple of years later, though)
Re:Nevertheless, a question
on
Happy Odd Day!
·
· Score: 1
Sigh!
Ok, in small words. Parity is *NOT* RAM. Parity is a way of examining numbers to see if they are valid. Some RAM modules use parity to tell if the answer that they come up with is right.
Now for the joke. Parity works by examining each bit to see if it's odd or even. OK. Get it now?
As I read the articles, the peak is expected to be EARLIER than that time, but below the horizon. The point in the sky that these radiate from rises about 11 PM local time, and the moon sets about 1 AM providing better contrast in a darker sky.
In the sky, the peak is 4:15 UT (GMT)(with lots of hand-waving about +/- as much as 12 hours). In North America, you need to wait till Leo rises, and perhaps till the moon sets, so you can see what's left of a waning show.
"It put them out of the computer business pretty much permanently."
Uh, no. They moved a fair amount of the stock XT clone (I forget whether they called it the 1200 or the 1500), and they sold absolute tons of the 1000. Everyone held off buying a low-end XT until they got a look at the "Peanut" (PCJr). Then they bought the Radio Shack Tandy 1000. The 1000 in all it's various forms was long after the 2000. And most of them were successful.
They still exist every 4ish years. 86 was Vancouver, Canada. Since then has been Barcelona and probably several other places I forget.
You only hear about a few of the fairs. Maybe every couple of decades is one worth remembering. Montreal '67 etc. Paris proudly remembers six world's fairs. But the world only remembers the one that gave us the iron tower.
"you wouldn't believe the lobbying effort put on for MS"
One of the reasons I saw people NOT voting for Dole was statements he made early in the race that made it look like he had been bought by the tobacco industry. Does anyone, even Repubs, want to look like they can be bought by MS?
The moment that some legit news editorial (as opposed to us discussion groups) says that MS can buy a politician, then that politician is in danger of people believing it. It is much easier to be bought when people aren't watching.
Cruise says"I can even use it with my laptop while I'm fishing with almost no extra hardware."
Forget the "almost". A friend has a phone with an IR port that can talk to his pilot. He dials the phone, puts it on the coffee table, and starts surfing on the handheld. The phone sure ain't disposable, though.
Slashdot Mirror
Did anyone cache the story? I cannot read the original story.
Is there any site that tends to see these stories and cache them before us raveous hordes descend from slashdot?
Is there any reason that Matsushita needs to meet US *EXPORT* restrictions? Why can't they design the "best" product (from their RIAA-influenced point of view) and ship it *TO* the states?
Sure, RCA won't be allowed to ship a jukebox out of the country, but Matsushita would be allowed to ship anywhere. Unless you also make it illegal to IMPORT strong encryption as well.
If you want security, you give EACH DVD a random key that your player contacts the manufacturer to discover and the key is based on a timestamp algorithm or something that would prevent anyone but a crypto expert from bothering.
I started to write the same comment. We haven't thought out all the implications of cheap full-time internet access. The recent Real-Networks privacy blowup was probably a baby step towards such a pay per listen concept.
I withdrew my comment before posting when I realized that full-time internet will not be available from your BMW in some ski valley in Colorado. If they want to sell super-upscale versions of this kind of thing, it will need to fit into cars. And a lookup-at-time-of-play key is not going to fit into cars for another several years.
Both my local cable modem (Wave via Rogers) and ADSL (many ISPs via Telus) suppliers apparently have contracts allowing them to charge for traffic beyond a certain number of gigabytes. My inability to forecast which of them will start charging first is one of the main reasons I am still using a phone modem. Once either cable or ADSL start charging for traffic, I will sign up with THE OTHER. But I'm told that both have the language in the contracts.
They just aren't USING that part of the contract. So far as I can tell, nobody on either (of our local) networks is being charged for volume.
Anyone who has watched Red Green knows that the keyboard is no problem. (grin)
Like this?
There was an ultrasound reflector on a headband I saw once. It was aimed at the Amiga market. You moved the mouse with your forehead. I expect that the reason it was never adopted related to the lack of buttons. You still had to reach your thumb to tap the buttons clamped to the bottom edge of your keyboard.
He abhors the chorded combos. But then he includes a link to a keyboard that eliminates the penalty zone entirely. I have no problem reaching for the keypad or the cursor keys without looking at them. They are just THERE, like the 90% of a piano that isn't right under your hand at any moment. (He despises the loss of the control keys, but says NOTHING about the morons who replaced a numeric keyboard with abstruse and specialized control functions and propagated that as "terminal emulation". Where'd the numbers go? Numbers do not belong in a thin stripe that takes BOTH hands!)
Vi may be a good video game for him, but I have other deep connections to my code. I like the low control because of the symmetry between the two hands. I want a keyboard with good feel, low control key, but drop the three vanity keys from my current one.
I was hired by a heavy-industrial company as a mainframe programmer. They quoted me an annual salary, but I am entered into all their systems as an hourly wage, and the hourly wage is shown on my semi-weekly direct deposit statement.
I get my pay based on a 37.5 hour week, not including lunches. I get "appropriate" breaks for coffee or whatever. The company covers jury duty, doctor visits, dentist, etc. I get time and a half for any hours between 7.5 and 11. I get double time over 11. I get 1.5X (double after 11)time for the second day I work on a weekend, even if I only came in for a short trouble call on the Saturday and worked 8 hours on Sunday.
With my current supervisor, I control my own hours. She takes my word for my net time per week, and I keep an Excel "timeclock" for my own tracking. If I don't feel like working, I can leave early. If I work late, I can "casually bank" in my own records, or formally file the overtime. For formal overtime, we choose once a year whether we will be collecting replacement time off (at the multiplied rate) or cash.
Why would I give this up for a "straight" salary?
One of the commercial products will bury your secret file into a WAV file, taking up to half of the file as apparent hiss behind the material you recorded. Even knowing the algorithm, there is no way to see that there even IS data there until you apply the algorithm WITH THE CORRECT PHRASE.
(These claims from the publisher's website. Too bad that I forget who the publisher was.) Does this sound similar to what you are talking about?
Google: knows nothing. .. no permission".
AltaVista: Three hits. TWO of them are mow mispointing to a Hillary Clinton story, the other mispointing to a non-relevant page.
Yahoo still has a link to the original site, which of course says "Forbidden
Ask Jeeves seems to choke on it, showing the three dead Altavista links and misformatting the rest of the page.
Dogpile.com found a reference to the original page on goto.com, and nothing else
So, Alt.conspiracy has a new topic of conversation, a budding artist gets his name spattered onto the big time. Nothing like a government stomp to get people watching.
But this NEEDS watching. A government that feels the need to stomp needs to be watched carefully. I thank those who brought this to our attention.
I'm told that the DVD standard was hackable partly because of mandatory weakening of exportable products from the US. Will the next generation of players come from Japan or Germany and ignore US limits entirely?
Now, I like the fact that DVD is now just data stored on a medium. But I suspect Hollywood is wishing that they had bought into a non-USA standard that was allowed to be as strong as the builders wanted it to be.
I heard a local Staples (?) ad on the radio on sunday pushing "Microsoft Gifts for Geeks". The way that they were saying it, you could hear the capitals.
Just remember whether or not you enjoyed being single, before giving your geek Microsoft stuff (grin)
You need to be made aware of it if someone is going to read your mail.
My employer makes me sign a form periodically (every couple of years?) that I'm aware that all email sent from a company account is company property and might be read.
Without a signed permission, I don't want anyone reading my mail.
This seems to be a generational thing. My generation thinks of ourselves as "nerds" and considers "geek" to be an offensive word. The young bucks chasing us all aspire to be "alpha geek".
I'm not sure that the shipping companies mind us knowing how hard the packages are tossed. I saw a knowledge network item discussing a fedex parcel sorting installation once, and a battering ram punched the box off the conveyer into a sorting bin at shockingly high speed. And that was in an item that FELT like a promotional fluff piece.
Perhaps the bulk of their customers would rather ship faster and cheaper, and handle the prospective damage through better packing?
Do we care where they hold the insurance? To me, if the parcel arrives in three pieces, they will pay for it. Or not. Depending on whether it was "insured".
Do I care where they keep the money in the meantime?
"12:34:56 on 7/8/90 ?
(following American date "standard, July 8th).
or, for others. August 7th. "
Drat. I use yymmdd, and there was no 76th month in 98. Neither was there a Julian day 765.
My billionth second fell early in the evening on New Year's eve one year. I celebrated hard that year! (Nobody was willing to buy me drinks for my 33 and 4 months birthday a couple of years later, though)
Sigh!
Ok, in small words. Parity is *NOT* RAM. Parity is a way of examining numbers to see if they are valid. Some RAM modules use parity to tell if the answer that they come up with is right.
Now for the joke. Parity works by examining each bit to see if it's odd or even. OK. Get it now?
Too many companies opt for the "Nothing can go wrong ... go wrong ... go" model of how to handle a problem.
Dell does an up-front attack on the problem first, PR later. This way, the world see's that they *HAD* a problem, but it's fixed now.
I find a "fix first, spin later" approach to increase my faith in a computer company.
"is supposed to be between 11 PM and 1 AM (EST?)"
As I read the articles, the peak is expected to be EARLIER than that time, but below the horizon. The point in the sky that these radiate from rises about 11 PM local time, and the moon sets about 1 AM providing better contrast in a darker sky.
In the sky, the peak is 4:15 UT (GMT)(with lots of hand-waving about +/- as much as 12 hours). In North America, you need to wait till Leo rises, and perhaps till the moon sets, so you can see what's left of a waning show.
"It put them out of the computer business pretty much permanently."
Uh, no. They moved a fair amount of the stock XT clone (I forget whether they called it the 1200 or the 1500), and they sold absolute tons of the 1000. Everyone held off buying a low-end XT until they got a look at the "Peanut" (PCJr). Then they bought the Radio Shack Tandy 1000. The 1000 in all it's various forms was long after the 2000. And most of them were successful.
They still exist every 4ish years. 86 was Vancouver, Canada. Since then has been Barcelona and probably several other places I forget.
You only hear about a few of the fairs. Maybe every couple of decades is one worth remembering. Montreal '67 etc. Paris proudly remembers six world's fairs. But the world only remembers the one that gave us the iron tower.
"you wouldn't believe the lobbying effort put on for MS"
One of the reasons I saw people NOT voting for Dole was statements he made early in the race that made it look like he had been bought by the tobacco industry. Does anyone, even Repubs, want to look like they can be bought by MS?
The moment that some legit news editorial (as opposed to us discussion groups) says that MS can buy a politician, then that politician is in danger of people believing it. It is much easier to be bought when people aren't watching.
Cruise says"I can even use it with my laptop while I'm fishing with almost no extra hardware."
Forget the "almost". A friend has a phone with an IR port that can talk to his pilot. He dials the phone, puts it on the coffee table, and starts surfing on the handheld. The phone sure ain't disposable, though.