"The additional cost to mine the asteroid and return the ores to Earth would make profit unlikely even if the asteriod was 20% gold." They could simply leave the gold on the moon (makes stealing it a big expense), prove that it exists, and sell it to central banks here on earth; AFAIK central banks have a lot of gold in storage. Then these no longer needed reserves could be put on the market, but an additional 100 tons of gold will make the price go down, making it even more unprofitable. Whatever their decision, price will go down.
To make it clear, this is a tax on the *private copying* of the copyrighted works purchased.
"PROJECTO DE LEI N.o 118/XII “Aprova o regime jurídico da Cópia Privada e altera o artigo 47.o do Código do Direito de Autor e dos Direitos Conexos – Sétima alteração ao Decreto-Lei n.o 63/85, de 14 de Março"
This proposal is to update the current legislation in place on copyright. It's an attempt to reinforce it to compensate authors for the legal private copying that occurs of purchased copyrighted works. It has nothing to do with piracy!
IMO the spirit of this this it to put piracy and private copy at the same level; after all the copyright holders are not compensated for these copies, be they private/legal or illegal!
It is appalling that our legislators (I'm Portuguese) can come up with this sort of proposals - as if an 1 TB drive will always hold 1 TB of copied copyrighted works; as if I should keep paying for works I purchased and/or others purchased!
Also, IIRC, the money collected by this tax is to be managed by an external entity, not the government, and distributed to authors - I have yet to see how this has been done in the past and where the money has landed.
If you want to know more, and are able to understand Portuguese, search "118/XII".
"The ability to talk to other kids from different areas with language barriers is a great way for people to learn a language."
If you make it part of a game it will become even more appealing - imagine the old text games, now change them to display text in the language of the majority/minority of people in a room; add tools to aid in translation and you've got kids learning languages while playing.
I'm in the EU too so your dislike for american corporations is misplaced. Not that I think that EU corporations aren't nice and friendly, they will also try to get the most out of you they can within the borders of legality: you have these 12/24 month fidelity clauses when you buy locked-in subsidized phones where the software has been customized to the network provider; outrageous roaming prices (this has been dealt with lately); abundant and confusing/conflicting service plans to name a few. As for prices, I can tell you that I still find them to be high, whatever the service and provider - there seems to be an unspoken aggreement between the providers but in fact it's their similar profit margins being paid by the customer.
"If you're going to rely on science, then look at the math. The math doesn't support it. And then, coming to the conclusion that natural science does not support abiogenesis, I turn my attention to the supernatural. For me, this is less of a stretch."
"like the portknocking idea. But, you are wrong -- it is obscure. In this case, either exhaustive, manual search or a tool (in this case a port scanner) is required to find the port. By definition, because it is more difficult to find, it is obscure. And, my server logs reflect the effect."
It's not a matter of being right or wrong. A port scan is very easy to do and if the port is open it will show. With port knocking, it will be much more difficult to find out because all the ports are closed, and will only open upon the correct knock sequence. It is very easy to automate the former, much harder with the later. It all depends on the effort you are willing to put up with to increase your attacker "cost" of access; but once access is gained, the service running on that port is as vulnerable in all cases.
"Which one, mathematically speaking, requires more faith?"
For me is not a question of faith but of reason. I do not question peoples' faith, I question the use of faith to justify questionable, from my point of view, facts which can be currently explained by science (or not). And I do not think science is infallible, DDT being a very good example, because science is done by people and people are not infallible.
The probabilities for the occurrence of life are small, but over billions of years the possibility of chemical compounds, with increasing complexity, becoming organized as simple single cell organisms, with increasing complexity, becoming organized as multi cellular organisms, and so on, is more plausible to me than the fully formed beings populating earth a few thousands of years ago, mixing dinosaurs and humans together (http://www.creationmuseum.org/).
The mobile device market is ~3 billion people strong, 3 times the PC market IIRC.
IMO this is what is driving Google - a chance of quadrupling their market.
Currently if you own a mobile/pda/smartphone you are locked-in in more than one way, making it virtually impossible for you to take control.
This Google initiative will force, hopefully, the mobile providers to provide communications services the same way you have with internet access today (on second thought, better than we have today).
You will end up with a device you control, capable of transparently adapt to the available communications providers - the micro communications provider will become widespread (e.g. http://www.fon.com/en/ already points the way). It can be a thin-client device and use google services (mail, docs, etc) or it can be fat-client and use google services and/or google mobile desktop;)
Google will profit from it, you will profit from it, the mobile and fixed communications providers will also profit and a new market is open for local micro communications providers - your restaurant, coffee shop, bus, subway station, ferry, municipality, etc.
"Once I moved the server to a different, more _obscure_ port, though, my logs rarely show any connection attempts."
You are still visible, a port scan will show it - it's not *obscure*. If you want *obscure* you should consider port knocking (http://www.portknocking.org/) or such other methods.
"I'm a creationist, and I'm not out of touch. For me, the incalcuably small probability of spontaneous generation of a lifeform able to be nourished by it's environment and then able to reproduce is not a large-enough foundation on which to build a scientific consensus."
Not wanting to downplay your beliefs, I find it a much much smaller probability the possibility of spontaneous generation of an entity able to create life by design.
"Symbian has suggested that Google is not experienced enough or capable of fully developing a workable mobile platform."
Google wants to be able to provide their revenue generating services to ~3 billion mobile users - quadrupling their market - and Symbian and Carriers get in the way. It's that simple.
How about 500.000-600.000 (estimated) Laptops with Vista + Office 2007! Let me explain.
Here in Portugal, Europe;-), our "smart" government decided to provide laptops and internet access to teachers, students and adults who came back to school - most of it will be paid by some compensation due from holders of GSM and 3G licenses, TMN, Optimus, Vodafone. The laptop models proposed, toshiba and fujitsu-siemens entry models mostly, have adequate specs (e.g. Toshiba L40: 15.4" screen, Dual Core 1.46GHz, 1GiB RAM, 80GB HDD, DVD Writer, WiFi, Wireless Broadband GSM/3G - from www.tmn.pt, choose "e.escola" on the left and "portátil & Banda Larga"). Google "e.escola" or check out the faq if you can read Portuguese. They state that these are 700-800 models but I suspect that with such volume deals they can shave 100-200 off the price, at least!
Some people will receive the machines for free and pay 5 monthly for internet, others pay 150 and have 5 shaved off internet monthly bill of 22.5 (some variations in-between depending on assorted conditions, like income etc.) Sounds good?
The catch is that the providers/"partners" for hardware/software have been pre-selected, no choice here, no public international bidding - we are talking about 500.000 machines after all! People have to stay 3 years in the program - what sounded like a good deal means for most people ~780 (22.5 - 5 x 36 + 150) over 3 years, most of it for (overpriced IMO) internet access at "up to" 384 Kbps/1GB download limit - want to download more, pay for it. I'm assuming here the reduced price is over the 3 year period, some people only get the first year.
This is not Nigeria, this is Portugal. So why? Because it's a win-win situation.
The government gets improved statistics concerning broadband internet penetration (currently approx. 500.000 users for wireless access, it will double with this project) and the number of computers at households; the opportunity for numerous propaganda events; and an opportunity to kiss MS ass, again;-) - if you are curious, google "Government Leaders Forum (GLF) in Lisbon".
The GSM/3G providers get to double their market; tie customers for longer periods of time through a guaranteed program of subsidized equipment sponsored by the government, to the point where you have the prime minister himself delivering computers! And also an excuse not to lower voice calls and internet access prices.
MS gets some more Vista + Office 2007 install stats; some more pocket lining; success case to nag other countries with.
Some Portuguese will get a new computer, a 3 year "loan"/debt and an obsolete computer by the end of if. And "broadband" internet access, hopefully...
But that is not the end of it. A 400 million euro program will follow, to place (overpriced and mostly useless without content to make use of it, IMO) interactive computerized boards in schools; improve ADSL access rates and coverage; provide 1 computer per 2 students, IIRC.
Human intelligence? Build robots to farm fields, to produce fuel to provide power to robots farming the fields, factories producing parts for robots, factories assembling robots,...
Sorry, I know its lame to reply to myself, but I forgot to mention that most likely the HW being bought has already paid the M$ tax, having the OS pre-installed.
Comparing this offer to the $100-but-really-$150 OLPC, the later still sounds better.
And what happens when the time to upgrade comes? From the article:
""This is not a philanthropic effort, this is a business," Orlando Ayala of Microsoft told the Reuter's news agency. The Microsoft initiative was launched by Bill Gates in Beijing under the banner of its Unlimited Potential scheme, a program aimed at bridging the digital divide"
Yes, I also find it useless. After 5 minutes looking around on the demo site I had to give up, the design is horrible - tiny fonts, doesn't use screen area available, grey text scrolling on dark grey background, just to name a few. Just why these guys tought flash would be better I don't know - a case study on how NOT to do it.
Have you considered creating an image for VMWare player/User Mode Linux/... and you'll have an instant development environment ready! You (your company) make the choice, no need to support several environments.
create an image for VMWare player/User Mode Linux/... and you have an instant development environment ready! You (your company) make the choice, no need to support several environments.
Intel LaGrande aims to 'protect' every IO path inside your computer, but this is still a work in progress - first TPM on every computer, the rest will be added piece by piece until the puzzle is complete.
"Broadcom® Controllers Integrate TPM 1.2, Enabling OEMs to Offer Hardware-Based Security as a Standard Feature on All PCs Platforms With TPM 1.2 Hardware Will Be Ready for Enhanced Security Functionality in the Next Microsoft OS (Code Name Longhorn) Expected to Ship in 2006 Breaking the Adoption Cost Barrier, Broadcom Has Integrated TPM 1.2 Functionality in Its Latest NetXtreme® Gigabit Ethernet Controller, Which Will Be Demonstrated This Week at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference 2005"
You might already have it and not know it (the above link is almost one year old).
"NDS Announces Availability Of Mobile DRM Application Based On ARM TrustZone Technology NDS implements the first OMAv2 DRM solution leveraging the ARM TrustZone Software API which together delivers interoperable security and reduced porting costs"
Slashdot Mirror
"The additional cost to mine the asteroid and return the ores to Earth would make profit unlikely even if the asteriod was 20% gold."
They could simply leave the gold on the moon (makes stealing it a big expense), prove that it exists, and sell it to central banks here on earth; AFAIK central banks have a lot of gold in storage. Then these no longer needed reserves could be put on the market, but an additional 100 tons of gold will make the price go down, making it even more unprofitable. Whatever their decision, price will go down.
To make it clear, this is a tax on the *private copying* of the copyrighted works purchased.
"PROJECTO DE LEI N.o 118/XII
“Aprova o regime jurídico da Cópia Privada e altera o artigo 47.o do Código do
Direito de Autor e dos Direitos Conexos – Sétima alteração ao Decreto-Lei n.o
63/85, de 14 de Março"
This proposal is to update the current legislation in place on copyright. It's an attempt to reinforce it to compensate authors for the legal private copying that occurs of purchased copyrighted works. It has nothing to do with piracy!
IMO the spirit of this this it to put piracy and private copy at the same level; after all the copyright holders are not compensated for these copies, be they private/legal or illegal!
It is appalling that our legislators (I'm Portuguese) can come up with this sort of proposals - as if an 1 TB drive will always hold 1 TB of copied copyrighted works; as if I should keep paying for works I purchased and/or others purchased!
Also, IIRC, the money collected by this tax is to be managed by an external entity, not the government, and distributed to authors - I have yet to see how this has been done in the past and where the money has landed.
If you want to know more, and are able to understand Portuguese, search "118/XII".
Not a book, but a must read for anyone working with computers.
If the purpose is to avoid roadside bombs, why not develop an UAV dedicated to that purpose?
It would also help with the clearing of minefields.
"The ability to talk to other kids from different areas with language barriers is a great way for people to learn a language."
If you make it part of a game it will become even more appealing - imagine the old text games, now change them to display text in the language of the majority/minority of people in a room; add tools to aid in translation and you've got kids learning languages while playing.
I'm in the EU too so your dislike for american corporations is misplaced. Not that I think that EU corporations aren't nice and friendly, they will also try to get the most out of you they can within the borders of legality: you have these 12/24 month fidelity clauses when you buy locked-in subsidized phones where the software has been customized to the network provider; outrageous roaming prices (this has been dealt with lately); abundant and confusing/conflicting service plans to name a few. As for prices, I can tell you that I still find them to be high, whatever the service and provider - there seems to be an unspoken aggreement between the providers but in fact it's their similar profit margins being paid by the customer.
It's interesting you mention mitochondria (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitochondrion/) because there's this endosymbiotic theory (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endosymbiotic_theory/ ) that supports the "complexity over time" I mentioned before. And it keeps going on even today (http://web.uconn.edu/mcbstaff/graf/Sym.html/).
"If you're going to rely on science, then look at the math. The math doesn't support it. And then, coming to the conclusion that natural science does not support abiogenesis, I turn my attention to the supernatural. For me, this is less of a stretch."
You might find the title of this site offensive (http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/abioprob/abioprob.html/), but it goes into a deeper detail on abiogenesis. I don't think we can rule out abiogenesis yet (or ever, IMO).
Anyhow, we seem to agree to disagree.
"like the portknocking idea. But, you are wrong -- it is obscure. In this case, either exhaustive, manual search or a tool (in this case a port scanner) is required to find the port. By definition, because it is more difficult to find, it is obscure. And, my server logs reflect the effect."
It's not a matter of being right or wrong. A port scan is very easy to do and if the port is open it will show. With port knocking, it will be much more difficult to find out because all the ports are closed, and will only open upon the correct knock sequence. It is very easy to automate the former, much harder with the later. It all depends on the effort you are willing to put up with to increase your attacker "cost" of access; but once access is gained, the service running on that port is as vulnerable in all cases.
"Which one, mathematically speaking, requires more faith?"
For me is not a question of faith but of reason. I do not question peoples' faith, I question the use of faith to justify questionable, from my point of view, facts which can be currently explained by science (or not). And I do not think science is infallible, DDT being a very good example, because science is done by people and people are not infallible.
The probabilities for the occurrence of life are small, but over billions of years the possibility of chemical compounds, with increasing complexity, becoming organized as simple single cell organisms, with increasing complexity, becoming organized as multi cellular organisms, and so on, is more plausible to me than the fully formed beings populating earth a few thousands of years ago, mixing dinosaurs and humans together (http://www.creationmuseum.org/).
The mobile device market is ~3 billion people strong, 3 times the PC market IIRC.
;)
IMO this is what is driving Google - a chance of quadrupling their market.
Currently if you own a mobile/pda/smartphone you are locked-in in more than one way, making it virtually impossible for you to take control.
This Google initiative will force, hopefully, the mobile providers to provide communications services the same way you have with internet access today (on second thought, better than we have today).
You will end up with a device you control, capable of transparently adapt to the available communications providers - the micro communications provider will become widespread (e.g. http://www.fon.com/en/ already points the way). It can be a thin-client device and use google services (mail, docs, etc) or it can be fat-client and use google services and/or google mobile desktop
Google will profit from it, you will profit from it, the mobile and fixed communications providers will also profit and a new market is open for local micro communications providers - your restaurant, coffee shop, bus, subway station, ferry, municipality, etc.
"Once I moved the server to a different, more _obscure_ port, though, my logs rarely show any connection attempts."
You are still visible, a port scan will show it - it's not *obscure*. If you want *obscure* you should consider port knocking (http://www.portknocking.org/) or such other methods.
"I'm a creationist, and I'm not out of touch. For me, the incalcuably small probability of spontaneous generation of a lifeform able to be nourished by it's environment and then able to reproduce is not a large-enough foundation on which to build a scientific consensus."
Not wanting to downplay your beliefs, I find it a much much smaller probability the possibility of spontaneous generation of an entity able to create life by design.
"Symbian has suggested that Google is not experienced enough or capable of fully developing a workable mobile platform."
Google wants to be able to provide their revenue generating services to ~3 billion mobile users - quadrupling their market - and Symbian and Carriers get in the way. It's that simple.
How about 500.000-600.000 (estimated) Laptops with Vista + Office 2007! Let me explain.
;-), our "smart" government decided to provide laptops and internet access to teachers, students and adults who came back to school - most of it will be paid by some compensation due from holders of GSM and 3G licenses, TMN, Optimus, Vodafone. The laptop models proposed, toshiba and fujitsu-siemens entry models mostly, have adequate specs (e.g. Toshiba L40: 15.4" screen, Dual Core 1.46GHz, 1GiB RAM, 80GB HDD, DVD Writer, WiFi, Wireless Broadband GSM/3G - from www.tmn.pt, choose "e.escola" on the left and "portátil & Banda Larga"). Google "e.escola" or check out the faq if you can read Portuguese. They state that these are 700-800 models but I suspect that with such volume deals they can shave 100-200 off the price, at least!
;-) - if you are curious, google "Government Leaders Forum (GLF) in Lisbon".
Here in Portugal, Europe
Some people will receive the machines for free and pay 5 monthly for internet, others pay 150 and have 5 shaved off internet monthly bill of 22.5 (some variations in-between depending on assorted conditions, like income etc.) Sounds good?
The catch is that the providers/"partners" for hardware/software have been pre-selected, no choice here, no public international bidding - we are talking about 500.000 machines after all! People have to stay 3 years in the program - what sounded like a good deal means for most people ~780 (22.5 - 5 x 36 + 150) over 3 years, most of it for (overpriced IMO) internet access at "up to" 384 Kbps/1GB download limit - want to download more, pay for it. I'm assuming here the reduced price is over the 3 year period, some people only get the first year.
This is not Nigeria, this is Portugal. So why? Because it's a win-win situation.
The government gets improved statistics concerning broadband internet penetration (currently approx. 500.000 users for wireless access, it will double with this project) and the number of computers at households; the opportunity for numerous propaganda events; and an opportunity to kiss MS ass, again
The GSM/3G providers get to double their market; tie customers for longer periods of time through a guaranteed program of subsidized equipment sponsored by the government, to the point where you have the prime minister himself delivering computers! And also an excuse not to lower voice calls and internet access prices.
MS gets some more Vista + Office 2007 install stats; some more pocket lining; success case to nag other countries with.
Some Portuguese will get a new computer, a 3 year "loan"/debt and an obsolete computer by the end of if. And "broadband" internet access, hopefully...
But that is not the end of it. A 400 million euro program will follow, to place (overpriced and mostly useless without content to make use of it, IMO) interactive computerized boards in schools; improve ADSL access rates and coverage; provide 1 computer per 2 students, IIRC.
Guess who is going to profit from it...
which might bring the price to the USD 250-300 range. It seems the machines will be built in Brazil.
"Power isn't the problem; intelligence is."
...
Human intelligence? Build robots to farm fields, to produce fuel to provide power to robots farming the fields, factories producing parts for robots, factories assembling robots,
Sorry, I know its lame to reply to myself, but I forgot to mention that most likely the HW being bought has already paid the M$ tax, having the OS pre-installed.
Comparing this offer to the $100-but-really-$150 OLPC, the later still sounds better.
What a good deal!
And what happens when the time to upgrade comes? From the article:
""This is not a philanthropic effort, this is a business," Orlando Ayala of Microsoft told the Reuter's news agency.
The Microsoft initiative was launched by Bill Gates in Beijing under the banner of its Unlimited Potential scheme, a program aimed at bridging the digital divide"
Looks more like unlimited profits to me.
Yes, I also find it useless. After 5 minutes looking around on the demo site I had to give up, the design is horrible - tiny fonts, doesn't use screen area available, grey text scrolling on dark grey background, just to name a few. Just why these guys tought flash would be better I don't know - a case study on how NOT to do it.
why hand guns do not have straps.
Have you considered creating an image for VMWare player/User Mode Linux/... and you'll have an instant development environment ready! You (your company) make the choice, no need to support several environments.
create an image for VMWare player/User Mode Linux/... and you have an instant development environment ready! You (your company) make the choice, no need to support several environments.
If you have to agree to an EULA, then it's not free.
Intel LaGrande aims to 'protect' every IO path inside your computer, but this is still a work in progress - first TPM on every computer, the rest will be added piece by piece until the puzzle is complete.
5 09/):
Gigabit ethernet controller with built-in TPM (http://www.broadcom.com/press/release.php?id=700
"Broadcom® Controllers Integrate TPM 1.2, Enabling OEMs to Offer Hardware-Based Security as a Standard Feature on All PCs
Platforms With TPM 1.2 Hardware Will Be Ready for Enhanced Security Functionality in the Next Microsoft OS (Code Name Longhorn) Expected to Ship in 2006 Breaking the Adoption Cost Barrier, Broadcom Has Integrated TPM 1.2 Functionality in Its Latest NetXtreme® Gigabit Ethernet Controller, Which Will Be Demonstrated This Week at the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference 2005"
You might already have it and not know it (the above link is almost one year old).
Your PDA/Mobile device/... will be next (http://www.arm.com/news/8308.html/):
"NDS Announces Availability Of Mobile DRM Application Based On ARM TrustZone Technology
NDS implements the first OMAv2 DRM solution leveraging the ARM TrustZone Software API which together delivers interoperable security and reduced porting costs"
Slashdot, news for girlies... ?