That's incorrect. At the time ComSci departments switched over to teaching C/C++ and even Java... those languages had already taken over the world, or rather had signifigant real world usage.
There was a big argument at my school at the time this decision was made. On one hand you had the pragmatists who were pushing for teaching C++ and Java because that's what students would be using in the real world.
On the other hand you had the theorists who wanted to teach high level concepts. They were pushing for using languages like Smalltalk, Scheme, Eiffel, etc. They wanted to teach concepts with languages which best envisioned those concepts at the strictest level, and could care little about practical usage.
A horrible battle ensued. The dean of the ComSci department resigned, and the pragmatists won.
Only somebody very clueless or with an agenda would try to believe Universities have any signifigance in the sea of change.
Only a very clueless Microsoftie with an agenda would fail to notice he'd just supported my thesis by showing how the widespread use of C++ and Java at the university level helped them take over the world.
Gosh it's fun to see you squirm. Watch those stock options boy;-)
While I was in school, I fiddled with Linux a bit, but got tired of trashing my install every week and having to start fresh.
That's odd, I've never heard of anyone trashing their Linux install every week. More typical to hear that a computer several years old is still running on its original Linux install, heavily upgraded.
I installed debian on my laptop exactly once (replacing windows obviously) and Mandake on my firewall and server, also once. I'm thinking about changing the other two to Debian as well, because it's easier to upgrade, but I won't wipe any hard disks - just create a new partition with Debian on it, boot to it and apt-get away. Once comfortably up and running I'll wipe the original partition, or maybe boot to a floppy and dd the Debian partition into the old partition. With appropriate resizes of course. In all this I never leave myself with an unusable system. My how much nicer life is with an OS intended to be useful.
Can anyone honestly say that if M$ offered them financial security for your work, you would really turn them down? Just think of all the good you could do with that money.
Logical progression - beat up old ladies and take their money, there's so much good you could do with it.
For some people - not all - feeling good about what they do is important. And what the heck, it pays well to be doing the right thing these days.
Consider the asking price of a MSCE vs a Unix admin.
Sure, I enjoy tweaking every last parameter in LaTeX, but give LaTeX to the average secretary, and you'll be spending over 100 hours of their time with training and support and looking stupid things up in the manual. (Don't believe me? Tell me where TeX keeps all its hidden math font metrics... I spent a day looking.
You need to try Lyx. For the secretary I'd recommend Staroffice at the moment, although Abiword is really coming along and it's a dream to use.
Slashdot subscriptions will essentially let you buy a thousand pages to be viewed without banner ads.
Time-based subscriptions are the way to go. You do not want to piss off the 3% of readers who post comments, and thus keep the other 97% entertained. And you do not want people to feel the meter is running while they're reading. Think about it, would you prefer a flat-rate or metered internet connection?
Somehow I doubt there's been a lot of market research here.
...this could be AMD's way to get back at Microsoft. For so long, MS and Intel have been sleeping together, both helping eath other out in each other's industries, forcing the other computer manufacturers to use their products in computers. In the transition to 64 bits, if AMD can get there faster (and by there, I mean readily available to the consumer, not readily available to the bored millionaire), they can enlist Linux as their Microsoft and do the same thing to the market that has been happening for a decade: only with a free OS.
It's not nearly so subtle as that, it's recognition of Linux's huge position in the server market, where prices are high and 64 bits is a significant win for file caching.
can you imagine what would happen if Linux boxes started winding up in the hands of users who knew nothing about it other than that they could save a few dollars by getting it?
Yep, they'd learn something, scary thought isn't it?
Oh, and exactly how much to you have to know to use a Mandrake box with KDE and Staroffice, automagic printer setup, etc?
I keep wondering why big companies like HP and Sun choose linux, instead of freeBSD. Although I'm not an expert on any of them, as far as I understand the BSD structure resembles SunOS and HP/UX more than Linux. Both BSD and linux are open source, and the BSD license even seems to be preferable to companies if, in the end, they decide to go closed source anyway.
Can someone explain this to me?
Because developers tend to prefer the GPL, which garauntees that we won't be buying back the fruits of our own labor one day from someone who's taken the whole thing, added some decoration, and used it to are part of some kind of toll booth on the information superhighway.
I'm sorry, but it needs to be said, what is the story with these stack based virtual machines? Isn't a stack based virtual machine a dipology of good sense? I mean really, who actually sat down and thought "yes, you know, it's a good idea to binary translate from a language that is significantly different (stack based) from the target language (register based), and, to do it at run time". What's the sense here? Exactly, what is it?
What if your native machine doesn't have the same number of registers as your virtual register machine, or the registers don't have the same properties?? (hint: translate back to stack, map onto new native registers).
Mapping a stack efficiently into registers is a non-problem for direct pcode interpetation, and native code translation is not particularly difficult, slow or inefficient.
Please don't use sun's crappy jvm design or bloated implemenation as a reason why this approach has to suck.
Yes, this is a key area where I think de Icaza has a problem. He's clearly planning on implementing Winforms (I checked on the Mono site) and those are not part of the ECMA C#/CLI/CLR spec. Microsoft will not permit those classes to be cloned - its already dropped strong hints about it.
Interesting point. Then our response should be:
Do clone these classes
Don't make Gnome dependent on them (so MS has no chance of shutting down Gnome itself)
Should MS dare to try to raise licensing/patent issues re this interface as a barrier to entry, fight them head on. Not in court, but through the court of public opinion and, need I even mention it, through their parole offi^H^H^H oversight committee.
Bitkeeper is available under two licenses. The commercial license costs money and comes with support. The non-commercial license does not cost money., but it has a requirement that all your ChangeLogs must be sent to a world-readable server controlled by BitMover.
Bitkeeper source is available, but it's illegal to redistribute a version of Bitkeeper with the mandatory open logging stripped out.
Bitmover Inc. wants to avoid the situation where people use bitkeeper like gcc, taking free software tools but not giving anything back. You can pay Bitmover money, or you can use a free-as-in-beer version that is suitable for software libre and unsuitable for closed-source software.
I used to stand up in front of Linux crowds and say, "Linux will never be successful on the desktop," and of course I'd get booed off the stage. And I finally realized the mistake I was making. Linux will not be successful on the PC replacing Windows OS. But we absolutely will be successful on the desktop as a geographic location.
An entirely different thing. Read. Think.
Anyway, I don't think he's right about not replacing Windows on the PC. He didn't count on the monumental greed of Billg. Microsoft's latest license fee grab will drive - is already driving - PC desktop users to Linux in droves.
I agree, it's a silly sounding name and probably raised the eyebrows of the boss of the BBC engineer that asked permission to stream it. Fortunately he had his boss well training, but I would certainly hesitate to recommend it to my boss for streaming. It sounds niche.
I've asked before and I'll ask again: why not call it "mp5" and encourage people to 'upgrade'? After all, Thompsons got away with MP3 Pro.
I disagree, I think ogg vorbis sounds cool, in the same way volkswagen bug sounds cool. However, if you need to number your standards instead of name them, try "OV1". Sounds cool, right? It means 'ogg version 1'.
Re:Is it Netsafe?? Doesn't sound like it.
on
Lindows Reviewed
·
· Score: 2
The single biggest issue I see here *is* that Lindows has you do everything while running as root.
It's not 1.0 yet, I expect they'll fix it. This isn't rocket science, but it is time consuming to get all the permissions right and I understand why they left it to last.
I think they might have rushed this preview a little, due to skeptical editorial comments on lwn.net. On balance I think it was a good move, even if it means people get to look a more of the unfinished aspects than they might have liked.
But if Lindows really has this many problems running windows apps, AND dumbs down Linux to whittle away many of its advantages... doesn't that really make Lindows a moot point?
No. It's debian, remember? It's got apt-get. That means any teenager can sit down and upgrade Lindows into a full-blown linux server, workstation, whatever, with a couple of commands.
Re:No, I think this guy has a point...
on
Lindows Reviewed
·
· Score: 2
I think the parent post has a valid point. If what you are using works, why change?
Because there is more than one type of person in the world. Duh. A product like Lindows isn't for every secretary out there, it's for people that are motivated to take a look at alternatives, yet not so motivated or adventurous as to jump into something completely unfamiliar. For them, Lindows could be a low risk, low stress way to take a look at something that just might, in the long run, be better for them.
It seems like the long and short of it is, "Specification candidates which are RAND encumbered must pass through an extra committee, and that committee must publish it's justification for recommending approval of specification status to that RAND encumbered specification candidate."
Not as strong as I might have liked, but it does make our path clear. Whenever a RAND encumbered specification is recommended by a PAG (the extra committee), we should review the justification, and voice our opinion. IE: if a PAG says, "we should make WMA the standard audio streaming architecture because Bill says it's better.", we should make a large and public effort to discredit the members of the PAG group, and have the recommendation overturned by the W3C director.
I'm with you there, I don't think that W3C is going to back down anymore than this, since IBM is reportedly pushing hard to keep the RAND option open. We should let this go on advisement, just as you say. But we should not forget who the bad actor is here and bring that up next time they want something from the open source community.
Keep in mind that there are two already-RAND- encumbered W3C standards: SVG and Voice Browser, both of which were quietly pushed through before the RAND policity was even opened to public discussion. These two standards now need to be re-examined, that is, withdrawn and ammended in line with W3C's revised patent policy. W3C isn't going to do that without a good, strong push.
You don't have a clue. Let me just pick out a couple of the grossly wrong items...
Why do we need 64bit processors? Addressing? Nah, current processors can address enough space.. with 386 processors FAR addressing was introduced, which expanded allocatable address space drastically. (those silly DS, SS,.. registers) And newest processors can deal with them with same ease as with non-far addressing.
Sheesh, where are you coming from? You can address 64 Gig of physical memory with an x86 now, but you can only address 4 Gig (at most!) of it linearly. 32 bit address registers, get it? Gosh, and far addressing was introduced with 386's was it? Give me a break, try 8086's.
AMD's 64bit solution currently has no real value.. except for huge data storage (could work faster with 64bit data blocks) and probably some heavy encryption. x86-64 compiled Quake3 would make minimum use of 64bit registers.. and would probably be just a margin faster than IA32 compiled version.
Right, and I'm supposed to believe you on this, given your performance above. Um, you seem to have ignored the value of being able to crunch 8 byte integers, or pixels 8 bytes at a time, nicely matching the width of the MMX registers. For starters. Repeat this to yourself: "sledge hammer". "sledge hammer". Good, that's more like it.
Is IA64 better? Yes it is. IA64 has 128 usable 64bit registers, predicates... But that is not all.. in single 64bit register you can store 4 16bit values(common integer). (or 8 8bit or 2 32bit)
Um, and guess how many 16 bit values you can store in a 64 bit sledgehammer register? Ah, and guess how many fp/mms instructions sledge can retire per cycle?
Clawhammer will be better for a year or so.. but soon it will hit the ceiling. Intel will be able to get better performance from 1/2 clocked IA64.
You don't have any idea why it's called itanic, do you. Moderaters, take a look above. Remember, that's what 'random' looks like. Yes, I've got mod points right now. No, I won't waste them on you.
Re:I think people are making this more difficult..
on
Flying on Mars
·
· Score: 5, Informative
Same laws apply.. sure there is less of an atmosphere.. but you also have one third the gravity to contend with. The main problem with such craft on the martian surface would be the fact that 1) they are huge, and 2) they are light. With the storms that have been witnessed on mars recently, storing such a craft would be a nightmare if you didn't collapse it and store it. Lets not forget the possibility you COULD be in the air when such a storm kicks up.. nothing could save your arse if that happened..
Fortunately, the laws of rocketry also continue to apply. The.38g gravity of of Mars really helps - landing vertically should be a cinch.
As for structural lightness, remember, the air is very thin. What looks like a huge storm on a satellite photo just isn't going to going to blow anything over on the ground. It's true, Martian winds can pick up small particles, and researchers are still trying to figure out how that happens - vortices maybe, and the oarger particles probably don't get very far off the ground. Global dust storms would contain only the finest particles.
Blimps/dirigibles on the other hand... with less than 1% atmosphere, you have less than 1% of the bouyancy. In the end your balloon will have to be 30 times bigger to lift the same mass. This means that, while a balloon might work, a dirigible won't. Too much structure required.
You're a dick. The question was about ways to conserve bandwidth by not sending a seperate stream to each user. How you got to soap-boxing about renting music is anyone's guess.
Anyway, back to the subject: for live feeds it's easy to multicast, because there's no time shifting. For on-demand streams (say of news updates or whatever) I can't see a way to mulitcast because everyone's listening to a different point in time. Perhaps a Akaimi type solution is the best idea with current tech.
You're a dick. It doesn't matter what spiffy simulcast whizzy-bangy-thingy you have if the source code isn't free. With source code in our hands and an established media format, we can do what we want.
Perhaps if the original poster was not a dick (starting of by damming Ogg with faint praise) I'd have contributed some of my design suggestions on how to adapt Ogg streaming for simulcasting.
Remember, if you want to get modded up, don't start your post with 'you're a dick', it just makes you look like a dick.
Slashdot Mirror
That's incorrect. At the time ComSci departments switched over to teaching C/C++ and even Java... those languages had already taken over the world, or rather had signifigant real world usage.
;-)
There was a big argument at my school at the time this decision was made. On one hand you had the pragmatists who were pushing for teaching C++ and Java because that's what students would be using in the real world.
On the other hand you had the theorists who wanted to teach high level concepts. They were pushing for using languages like Smalltalk, Scheme, Eiffel, etc. They wanted to teach concepts with languages which best envisioned those concepts at the strictest level, and could care little about practical usage.
A horrible battle ensued. The dean of the ComSci department resigned, and the pragmatists won.
Only somebody very clueless or with an agenda would try to believe Universities have any signifigance in the sea of change.
Only a very clueless Microsoftie with an agenda would fail to notice he'd just supported my thesis by showing how the widespread use of C++ and Java at the university level helped them take over the world.
Gosh it's fun to see you squirm. Watch those stock options boy
While I was in school, I fiddled with Linux a bit, but got tired of trashing my install every week and having to start fresh.
That's odd, I've never heard of anyone trashing their Linux install every week. More typical to hear that a computer several years old is still running on its original Linux install, heavily upgraded.
I installed debian on my laptop exactly once (replacing windows obviously) and Mandake on my firewall and server, also once. I'm thinking about changing the other two to Debian as well, because it's easier to upgrade, but I won't wipe any hard disks - just create a new partition with Debian on it, boot to it and apt-get away. Once comfortably up and running I'll wipe the original partition, or maybe boot to a floppy and dd the Debian partition into the old partition. With appropriate resizes of course. In all this I never leave myself with an unusable system. My how much nicer life is with an OS intended to be useful.
Can anyone honestly say that if M$ offered them financial security for your work, you would really turn them down? Just think of all the good you could do with that money.
Logical progression - beat up old ladies and take their money, there's so much good you could do with it.
For some people - not all - feeling good about what they do is important. And what the heck, it pays well to be doing the right thing these days.
Consider the asking price of a MSCE vs a Unix admin.
Sure, I enjoy tweaking every last parameter in LaTeX, but give LaTeX to the average secretary, and you'll be spending over 100 hours of their time with training and support and looking stupid things up in the manual. (Don't believe me? Tell me where TeX keeps all its hidden math font metrics... I spent a day looking.
You need to try Lyx. For the secretary I'd recommend Staroffice at the moment, although Abiword is really coming along and it's a dream to use.
Yeah, just like when I was in the CS program an entire generation of students learned Pascal.
This equated to a *HUGE* Pascal market out in the real world...
oh wait, that never materialized.
You forgot to mention that nowadays everybody learns C/C++ in computer science, and look, it did take over the world.
Only somebody very clueless or with an agenda would try to downplay the significance of a sea change at the university level.
Slashdot subscriptions will essentially let you buy a thousand pages to be viewed without banner ads.
Time-based subscriptions are the way to go. You do not want to piss off the 3% of readers who post comments, and thus keep the other 97% entertained. And you do not want people to feel the meter is running while they're reading. Think about it, would you prefer a flat-rate or metered internet connection?
Somehow I doubt there's been a lot of market research here.
...this could be AMD's way to get back at Microsoft. For so long, MS and Intel have been sleeping together, both helping eath other out in each other's industries, forcing the other computer manufacturers to use their products in computers. In the transition to 64 bits, if AMD can get there faster (and by there, I mean readily available to the consumer, not readily available to the bored millionaire), they can enlist Linux as their Microsoft and do the same thing to the market that has been happening for a decade: only with a free OS.
It's not nearly so subtle as that, it's recognition of Linux's huge position in the server market, where prices are high and 64 bits is a significant win for file caching.
can you imagine what would happen if Linux boxes started winding up in the hands of users who knew nothing about it other than that they could save a few dollars by getting it?
Yep, they'd learn something, scary thought isn't it?
Oh, and exactly how much to you have to know to use a Mandrake box with KDE and Staroffice, automagic printer setup, etc?
I keep wondering why big companies like HP and Sun choose linux, instead of freeBSD. Although I'm not an expert on any of them, as far as I understand the BSD structure resembles SunOS and HP/UX more than Linux. Both BSD and linux are open source, and the BSD license even seems to be preferable to companies if, in the end, they decide to go closed source anyway.
Can someone explain this to me?
Because developers tend to prefer the GPL, which garauntees that we won't be buying back the fruits of our own labor one day from someone who's taken the whole thing, added some decoration, and used it to are part of some kind of toll booth on the information superhighway.
I'm sorry, but it needs to be said, what is the story with these stack based virtual machines? Isn't a stack based virtual machine a dipology of good sense? I mean really, who actually sat down and thought "yes, you know, it's a good idea to binary translate from a language that is significantly different (stack based) from the target language (register based), and, to do it at run time". What's the sense here? Exactly, what is it?
What if your native machine doesn't have the same number of registers as your virtual register machine, or the registers don't have the same properties?? (hint: translate back to stack, map onto new native registers).
Mapping a stack efficiently into registers is a non-problem for direct pcode interpetation, and native code translation is not particularly difficult, slow or inefficient.
Please don't use sun's crappy jvm design or bloated implemenation as a reason why this approach has to suck.
Interesting point. Then our response should be:
Do clone these classes
Don't make Gnome dependent on them (so MS has no chance of shutting down Gnome itself)
Should MS dare to try to raise licensing/patent issues re this interface as a barrier to entry, fight them head on. Not in court, but through the court of public opinion and, need I even mention it, through their parole offi^H^H^H oversight committee.
Bitkeeper is available under two licenses. The commercial license costs money and comes with support. The non-commercial license does not cost money., but it has a requirement that all your ChangeLogs must be sent to a world-readable server controlled by BitMover.
;-)
Bitkeeper source is available, but it's illegal to redistribute a version of Bitkeeper with the mandatory open logging stripped out.
Bitmover Inc. wants to avoid the situation where people use bitkeeper like gcc, taking free software tools but not giving anything back. You can pay Bitmover money, or you can use a free-as-in-beer version that is suitable for software libre and unsuitable for closed-source software.
Hi Larry
Truth to tell, America's main contribution to the current console market is EA Sports
EA Sports is based in Vancouver, Canada, in staffed by Canadians and was formerly a Canadian company called Distinctive Software.
What he said was:
I used to stand up in front of Linux crowds and say, "Linux will never be successful on the desktop," and of course I'd get booed off the stage. And I finally realized the mistake I was making. Linux will not be successful on the PC replacing Windows OS. But we absolutely will be successful on the desktop as a geographic location.
An entirely different thing. Read. Think.
Anyway, I don't think he's right about not replacing Windows on the PC. He didn't count on the monumental greed of Billg. Microsoft's latest license fee grab will drive - is already driving - PC desktop users to Linux in droves.
I agree, it's a silly sounding name and probably raised the eyebrows of the boss of the BBC engineer that asked permission to stream it. Fortunately he had his boss well training, but I would certainly hesitate to recommend it to my boss for streaming. It sounds niche.
I've asked before and I'll ask again: why not call it "mp5" and encourage people to 'upgrade'? After all, Thompsons got away with MP3 Pro.
I disagree, I think ogg vorbis sounds cool, in the same way volkswagen bug sounds cool. However, if you need to number your standards instead of name them, try "OV1". Sounds cool, right? It means 'ogg version 1'.
The single biggest issue I see here *is* that Lindows has you do everything while running as root.
It's not 1.0 yet, I expect they'll fix it. This isn't rocket science, but it is time consuming to get all the permissions right and I understand why they left it to last.
I think they might have rushed this preview a little, due to skeptical editorial comments on lwn.net. On balance I think it was a good move, even if it means people get to look a more of the unfinished aspects than they might have liked.
But if Lindows really has this many problems running windows apps, AND dumbs down Linux to whittle away many of its advantages... doesn't that really make Lindows a moot point?
No. It's debian, remember? It's got apt-get. That means any teenager can sit down and upgrade Lindows into a full-blown linux server, workstation, whatever, with a couple of commands.
I think the parent post has a valid point. If what you are using works, why change?
Because there is more than one type of person in the world. Duh. A product like Lindows isn't for every secretary out there, it's for people that are motivated to take a look at alternatives, yet not so motivated or adventurous as to jump into something completely unfamiliar. For them, Lindows could be a low risk, low stress way to take a look at something that just might, in the long run, be better for them.
It seems like the long and short of it is, "Specification candidates which are RAND encumbered must pass through an extra committee, and that committee must publish it's justification for recommending approval of specification status to that RAND encumbered specification candidate."
Not as strong as I might have liked, but it does make our path clear. Whenever a RAND encumbered specification is recommended by a PAG (the extra committee), we should review the justification, and voice our opinion. IE: if a PAG says, "we should make WMA the standard audio streaming architecture because Bill says it's better.", we should make a large and public effort to discredit the members of the PAG group, and have the recommendation overturned by the W3C director.
I'm with you there, I don't think that W3C is going to back down anymore than this, since IBM is reportedly pushing hard to keep the RAND option open. We should let this go on advisement, just as you say. But we should not forget who the bad actor is here and bring that up next time they want something from the open source community.
Keep in mind that there are two already-RAND- encumbered W3C standards: SVG and Voice Browser, both of which were quietly pushed through before the RAND policity was even opened to public discussion. These two standards now need to be re-examined, that is, withdrawn and ammended in line with W3C's revised patent policy. W3C isn't going to do that without a good, strong push.
Excuse my ignorance, but what the heck are "MiB" and "KiB" ??
The are "MibbleBytes" and "KibbleBytes" respectively.
;-)
I think that having more formats is a good thing.
Not that I'm an MS fan. "Let the markets decide."
Isn't that the standard disclaimer all MS atroturfers use?
Newer, faster, wider, more-torque hardware is always great. But don't forget the software.
Linux already runs find on itanic, oops I mean itanium. Linux runs on AMD hammer even before it's out .
You don't have a clue. Let me just pick out a couple of the grossly wrong items...
.. registers) And newest processors can deal with them with same ease as with non-far addressing.
Why do we need 64bit processors? Addressing? Nah, current processors can address enough space.. with 386 processors FAR addressing was introduced, which expanded allocatable address space drastically. (those silly DS, SS,
Sheesh, where are you coming from? You can address 64 Gig of physical memory with an x86 now, but you can only address 4 Gig (at most!) of it linearly. 32 bit address registers, get it? Gosh, and far addressing was introduced with 386's was it? Give me a break, try 8086's.
AMD's 64bit solution currently has no real value.. except for huge data storage (could work faster with 64bit data blocks) and probably some heavy encryption. x86-64 compiled Quake3 would make minimum use of 64bit registers.. and would probably be just a margin faster than IA32 compiled version.
Right, and I'm supposed to believe you on this, given your performance above. Um, you seem to have ignored the value of being able to crunch 8 byte integers, or pixels 8 bytes at a time, nicely matching the width of the MMX registers. For starters. Repeat this to yourself: "sledge hammer". "sledge hammer". Good, that's more like it.
Is IA64 better? Yes it is. IA64 has 128 usable 64bit registers, predicates... But that is not all.. in single 64bit register you can store 4 16bit values(common integer). (or 8 8bit or 2 32bit)
Um, and guess how many 16 bit values you can store in a 64 bit sledgehammer register? Ah, and guess how many fp/mms instructions sledge can retire per cycle?
Clawhammer will be better for a year or so.. but soon it will hit the ceiling. Intel will be able to get better performance from 1/2 clocked IA64.
You don't have any idea why it's called itanic, do you. Moderaters, take a look above. Remember, that's what 'random' looks like. Yes, I've got mod points right now. No, I won't waste them on you.
Same laws apply.. sure there is less of an atmosphere.. but you also have one third the gravity to contend with. The main problem with such craft on the martian surface would be the fact that 1) they are huge, and 2) they are light. With the storms that have been witnessed on mars recently, storing such a craft would be a nightmare if you didn't collapse it and store it. Lets not forget the possibility you COULD be in the air when such a storm kicks up.. nothing could save your arse if that happened..
.38g gravity of of Mars really helps - landing vertically should be a cinch.
Fortunately, the laws of rocketry also continue to apply. The
As for structural lightness, remember, the air is very thin. What looks like a huge storm on a satellite photo just isn't going to going to blow anything over on the ground. It's true, Martian winds can pick up small particles, and researchers are still trying to figure out how that happens - vortices maybe, and the oarger particles probably don't get very far off the ground. Global dust storms would contain only the finest particles.
Blimps/dirigibles on the other hand... with less than 1% atmosphere, you have less than 1% of the bouyancy. In the end your balloon will have to be 30 times bigger to lift the same mass. This means that, while a balloon might work, a dirigible won't. Too much structure required.
You're a dick. The question was about ways to conserve bandwidth by not sending a seperate stream to each user. How you got to soap-boxing about renting music is anyone's guess.
Anyway, back to the subject: for live feeds it's easy to multicast, because there's no time shifting. For on-demand streams (say of news updates or whatever) I can't see a way to mulitcast because everyone's listening to a different point in time. Perhaps a Akaimi type solution is the best idea with current tech.
You're a dick. It doesn't matter what spiffy simulcast whizzy-bangy-thingy you have if the source code isn't free. With source code in our hands and an established media format, we can do what we want.
Perhaps if the original poster was not a dick (starting of by damming Ogg with faint praise) I'd have contributed some of my design suggestions on how to adapt Ogg streaming for simulcasting.
Remember, if you want to get modded up, don't start your post with 'you're a dick', it just makes you look like a dick.