Audio and Video compresion are two totaly seperate things. You have MP1, MP2 and MP3 for audio (MPEG1 Layer 1, Layer 2 and Layer 3, respectivley), then you have MPEG1, MPEG2 and MPEG4 for video. MPEG1 on VCD's, MPEG2 on DVD/Digital TV, and MPEG4 which is the codec in question in the article. You can combine the Audio & Video codecs as you wish, but most MPEG1 VCD's use MP2 or MP3 compresion for the audio....
Actaully, MP4 is a work in progress, M$ decided to jump the gun and release their own MP4 codec before the standard is finalised. Then the DivX team hacked the codec to make it faster. All of this seems to be lost on the BBC, whom i had a damn good laugh at when i read the article....
To publish on the internet and try to stop copies being distributed is a lost cause, as Microsoft so very recently found out.
The problem is, no matter which way you distribute your text, the user will in one way or another be able to copy it, either directly, copy & paste etc. etc. It's a fact of computers.
As i see it, you have two options:
Have each "user" pay for the right to login to a website, where they can read the text.
Disadvantages: User/Pass combinations can be distributed, not portable, can still be copied with Copy & Paste and a webbrowser.
Advantages: You keep control of the text, and can disable accounts if abuse is detected.
Create a propriatery e-book format that with a hidden serial number in it, and maybe even an "expiry date" or some such in it.
Disadvantages: Takes time & coding experience to create the reader, propriatry, needs to be ported about, many users probably unwilling to use a peice of software for the one peice of text.
Advantages: Copies will be easier to track, can be disabled with clever programing if abuse detected, can write the reader not to allow Copy & Paste.
Personally, i don't see either option as being very atractive. If you want to make a profit from the book, dead tree is possibly the only way to go at the moment.
Someone starts attacking you. You start attacking back, and then they see they are being attacked, have the same idea, and step up their attack on you. You then see that their attack has escalated, so you too escalate your attack. Wash, rinse, repeat, until you're both throwing GB's back and fourth. Not a good plan.
I was using the latest (Not CVS) release of WINE (The version escapes me, and i'm not using that box atm). The player was mplayer2, pretty sure it was a 6.4 version, and it worked fine (Apart from aforementioned audio problems).
Something we may be doing diferently is that i have Winblows 95 installed on a small partition, and have WINE set to use the Windows native DLL's, rather than the built-in's that WINE has.
Ah yes, i also remember being the only one out of a group of about 4 or 5 firends who laughed at that. Still, my friends arn't geeks, so i guess that's o.k
Can political persecution of a Corporation apply under international law? I can just imagine 20k M$ employees turning up in the back of a fleet of lorries, and claiming political asylum in Canda....
Bill, Saddam...whats the diference? I say invade Canada now, we'll call it a pre-emptive strike. Hey, come to think of it, Canada is still part of the British Empire, and i'm British....
I'm just going to lobby the Queen about this, i'll let you know how it goes...
Windows Media player under WINE works. Havn't tried the Apple player, but i have a feeling that would work too. Only problem i have is that the audio has to be downgraded to 8bit, 16bit gives nasty results with lots of extra noise. But the movie codecs work.
SiS support had just been included in XF86 when i had an SiS card, but the driver for my particular card was one of the ones that was supposed to be complete. It was crap, the hardware was slow, and the resolutions offered were rubbish. I gave up with the SiS and bought a cheap S3 Virge based card, which worked fine, no problems.
Now, don't even get me started on the cheap soundcard i used to have too....
We know who invented TV, but few people know who invented the electron gun that it relies on
This is another common misconception, that John Loggie Baird (sp?) invented modern television. His invention used a mechanical scanning disk, not an electron gun. The electron gun TV was a seperate invention (And i can't even name it's inventor off the top of my head). Baird still gets the credit for inventing TV, however.
Wow! What's pricing and availability going to be like?
Grab the soldering iron (Not the hot end, mind), the plans are available on the website. Yes, you too can build your own MatchBoxPC! The only problem could be etching your own PCB's. Anyone want to do a batch of them?
No, this one is at least possible (And it is a bit harder to fake pictures of a fully built PCB & components), and really is just slightly larger than a matchbox.
And before anyone asks, yes, it does run Linux, and yes, you can build a beowulf cluster of these (Now it has ethernet and all).
No one has said for certain it will be three companies, and obviously Judge Jackson has missed the fact that Microsoft also makes hardware. Unless he has, and has decided to put the hardware production with, say, Operating Systems. Which would be a Bad Thing.
The one that produces hardware. So they can build XBoxes, mice, keyboards, gamepads, and other things that Microsoft are actually good at. They could be one of the most sucesful, come to think of it.
You've actually left out one of the most obvious, and relevent, Things That Microsoft Have Got Right (TM) : Hardware
Microsoft Mice & Gamepads are good quality products (We'll forget "Natural" keyboards for now, although some people do genuinly like them, and they're still well built). And how about Microsofts last games-computer, the MSX? The quality was actually very good, and the games support was good too.
Maybe the XBox will be a good product. Given Microsofts past history of hardware it seems like it may.
As many people have noted, the Windows API is a moving target. Microsoft love to change it, and add to it. WINE has already managed to keep up with Microsoft pretty well, and once WINE has managed at least 99% of the Windows API, most of the work is done.
Even when Microsoft go and add or change the API again, compared to what WINE has already achieved it shouldn't be too much work to add the new functions into WINE. After all, Microsoft can't change the API too much, without breaking compatibility.
What if 100,000 businesses are using it? Do you really want a message every 10 yards or so, telling you you are near a Gap store, or Burger King? What if you don't like Whoppers, but love Big Macs? Would a message telling you you are near a BK really sway you?
Slashdot Mirror
Audio and Video compresion are two totaly seperate things. You have MP1, MP2 and MP3 for audio (MPEG1 Layer 1, Layer 2 and Layer 3, respectivley), then you have MPEG1, MPEG2 and MPEG4 for video. MPEG1 on VCD's, MPEG2 on DVD/Digital TV, and MPEG4 which is the codec in question in the article. You can combine the Audio & Video codecs as you wish, but most MPEG1 VCD's use MP2 or MP3 compresion for the audio....
Actaully, MP4 is a work in progress, M$ decided to jump the gun and release their own MP4 codec before the standard is finalised. Then the DivX team hacked the codec to make it faster. All of this seems to be lost on the BBC, whom i had a damn good laugh at when i read the article....
The problem is, no matter which way you distribute your text, the user will in one way or another be able to copy it, either directly, copy & paste etc. etc. It's a fact of computers.
As i see it, you have two options:
Disadvantages: User/Pass combinations can be distributed, not portable, can still be copied with Copy & Paste and a webbrowser.
Advantages: You keep control of the text, and can disable accounts if abuse is detected.
Disadvantages: Takes time & coding experience to create the reader, propriatry, needs to be ported about, many users probably unwilling to use a peice of software for the one peice of text.
Advantages: Copies will be easier to track, can be disabled with clever programing if abuse detected, can write the reader not to allow Copy & Paste.
Personally, i don't see either option as being very atractive. If you want to make a profit from the book, dead tree is possibly the only way to go at the moment.
Someone starts attacking you. You start attacking back, and then they see they are being attacked, have the same idea, and step up their attack on you. You then see that their attack has escalated, so you too escalate your attack. Wash, rinse, repeat, until you're both throwing GB's back and fourth. Not a good plan.
I was using the latest (Not CVS) release of WINE (The version escapes me, and i'm not using that box atm). The player was mplayer2, pretty sure it was a 6.4 version, and it worked fine (Apart from aforementioned audio problems).
Something we may be doing diferently is that i have Winblows 95 installed on a small partition, and have WINE set to use the Windows native DLL's, rather than the built-in's that WINE has.
Commonwealth, Empire, same thing for us Brits. Empire just makes us sound more like the Colonial bastards we all know we are....
Hang on a mo, who's the Canadian head of state?
Ah yes, i also remember being the only one out of a group of about 4 or 5 firends who laughed at that. Still, my friends arn't geeks, so i guess that's o.k
Can political persecution of a Corporation apply under international law? I can just imagine 20k M$ employees turning up in the back of a fleet of lorries, and claiming political asylum in Canda....
Bill, Saddam...whats the diference? I say invade Canada now, we'll call it a pre-emptive strike. Hey, come to think of it, Canada is still part of the British Empire, and i'm British....
I'm just going to lobby the Queen about this, i'll let you know how it goes...
O.K, maybe not. But it could happen; you've all seen Southpark, right guys?
Windows Media player under WINE works. Havn't tried the Apple player, but i have a feeling that would work too. Only problem i have is that the audio has to be downgraded to 8bit, 16bit gives nasty results with lots of extra noise. But the movie codecs work.
SiS support had just been included in XF86 when i had an SiS card, but the driver for my particular card was one of the ones that was supposed to be complete. It was crap, the hardware was slow, and the resolutions offered were rubbish. I gave up with the SiS and bought a cheap S3 Virge based card, which worked fine, no problems.
Now, don't even get me started on the cheap soundcard i used to have too....
Hang on a mo. From http://www.geocities.com/~anderberg/ ant/history/
1961
July
Leonard Kleinrock publishes the first paper on packet switching networks: 'Information Flow in Large Communication Nets' while at MIT.
Is this a paper based on Donald Davies earlier work, or a paper published almost at the same time and i'm getting confused?
We know who invented TV, but few people know who invented the electron gun that it relies on
This is another common misconception, that John Loggie Baird (sp?) invented modern television. His invention used a mechanical scanning disk, not an electron gun. The electron gun TV was a seperate invention (And i can't even name it's inventor off the top of my head). Baird still gets the credit for inventing TV, however.
I'll stop being pedantic now...;)
Heh, it could still be an NT/IIS clutser, but patched to report back as FreeBSD/Apache to make it more respectible.
BTW, if this post goes through, it means i've managed to moderate and post to the same thread...whoops.
Wow! What's pricing and availability going to be like?
Grab the soldering iron (Not the hot end, mind), the plans are available on the website. Yes, you too can build your own MatchBoxPC! The only problem could be etching your own PCB's. Anyone want to do a batch of them?
No, this one is at least possible (And it is a bit harder to fake pictures of a fully built PCB & components), and really is just slightly larger than a matchbox.
And before anyone asks, yes, it does run Linux, and yes, you can build a beowulf cluster of these (Now it has ethernet and all).
No one has said for certain it will be three companies, and obviously Judge Jackson has missed the fact that Microsoft also makes hardware. Unless he has, and has decided to put the hardware production with, say, Operating Systems. Which would be a Bad Thing.
Which company would be in control of the X-box?
The one that produces hardware. So they can build XBoxes, mice, keyboards, gamepads, and other things that Microsoft are actually good at. They could be one of the most sucesful, come to think of it.
Yup. Obviously somone at M$ central decided to try & suck up to Bill for extra browney points.
You've actually left out one of the most obvious, and relevent, Things That Microsoft Have Got Right (TM) : Hardware
Microsoft Mice & Gamepads are good quality products (We'll forget "Natural" keyboards for now, although some people do genuinly like them, and they're still well built). And how about Microsofts last games-computer, the MSX? The quality was actually very good, and the games support was good too.
Maybe the XBox will be a good product. Given Microsofts past history of hardware it seems like it may.
As many people have noted, the Windows API is a moving target. Microsoft love to change it, and add to it. WINE has already managed to keep up with Microsoft pretty well, and once WINE has managed at least 99% of the Windows API, most of the work is done.
Even when Microsoft go and add or change the API again, compared to what WINE has already achieved it shouldn't be too much work to add the new functions into WINE. After all, Microsoft can't change the API too much, without breaking compatibility.
What if 100,000 businesses are using it? Do you really want a message every 10 yards or so, telling you you are near a Gap store, or Burger King? What if you don't like Whoppers, but love Big Macs? Would a message telling you you are near a BK really sway you?
What does removing jamming have to do with it, surly GPS was acurate enough to send close-to-pin point ad's anyway?
Whats wrong with billboards and bus stops anyway?