Yes, I was wondering why they aren't moving more quickly toward the mass market. I do notice that the web page looks a lot slick than it did a few years ago (or so I remember anyhow).
There are probably several reasons that none of us can go out and buy one right now. Obviously the charter of the project says that the goal is to explore new interface innovations in hand-held computing--these guys are just doing research and development, not necessarily even looking for a commercial poduct. Also, I imagine that there may be some marketing thought the either consumers are not ready for such a device (the general consumer, I mean--I'm sure as hell ready) or that they need to exploit the market for stuff they already have out there more before moving on to something drastically better. Do you really think that Intel or AMD don't have some increadibly cool processors sitting around that aren't going to market for years because of stategy not technology reasons?
Anyhow, they provide directions on how to build your own itsy. I just signed up to have the url for the directions emailed to me. I wonder if interested Slashdoters could get some sort of bulk discount on the necessary parts?
My company (Kinkos) used surfwatch for a year. After that year almost every technology manager in the country banned together to get Surfwatch taken out of the computer bundles. Spending a vast amount of time explaining to customers why they cannot access innocent websites, or send personal web-based email with blue words in them, turned out to be an incredible waste of time and loss of revenue.
It has now been more than a year without any sort of filtering software on any of the 18,000 public terminals in Kinkos around the world and we have not had a single report of any children corrupted by pornography. The computer services staff is more sane, and Kinkos is making more money.
I personally do not believe that it's ethical to put any sort of filters on library computers, and professionally I just don't think it will end up working.
Having said that, I think it's important to note that the Holland libraries (if i remember correctly from the local news stories) had already installed a filtering system with card readers for smart chips in library cards. Library patrons over 18 were given unrestricted access by default, while those under 18 were given the most restriced access by default; parents could choose to adjust the access of their children's cards (or their own cards). This seemed like a pretty sane system to me, but appearantly the FRC doesn't want anyone to have an option.
Since things like the glass and lenses on color copier can be and are regularly replaced, they would not be useful in tracking. If you read the article you will find that they are actually talking about centrally tracked serial numbers.
... and this is something we've known about for years. Most color copiers do embed a serial number and many--particularly canons--will shutdown if you try to copy currency.
While the owner of the copier may not be officially required to register with the manufacturer, most non-consumer grade equipment needs to be serviced at least once a month. For example, each color copy generates a small amount of excess toner which is scraped off into a waste toner bottle; Xerox decided not to make this a user serviceable part on the Docucolor 40's (which are in almost every Kinko's in the world).
Kinko's, however, is generally more interested in making money and avoiding lawsuits than invading anyone's privacy. Every Kinko's Co-Worker is trained in the copy guidelines generated by our pack or ravenous lawyers about what we can copy and how. For example, the kid in the article should of been told that we can copy his driver's license but only in black and white and only at 129 percent.
Anyhow, for your extra dose of paranoia today consider this: even most of the new black and white copiers (from the Docutech to the Xerox 265) actually digitize and and store the images rather than flashing them to an analog transfer belt. All these copiers are equiped with a modem.
As stated previously 1337 is elite. Back in the bbs (bulletin board system) days, elite was a kind of "trusted" access that would allow download of pirated software.
As a sidebar, I find it interesting that many of the "elite" people I know from those days (not the script kiddies who spell things like 1337) are now heavily into the opensource movement and claim that it was about free speech not free beer all along. I dunno...
I just browsed through the etoys site and found a contacts page with email addresses.
I would suggest that we all contact investor relations and politely explain our displeasure. You may wish to point out to them that they are not only wrong, but they are also throwing away potentially very lucrative business from computer-savy young professionals. I think this is just the kind of things investors would want to know about; we should let them know.
Yeah, Blade Runner was the first thing i thought of when i saw this.
I'm pretty sure that the snake (and the owl) in Blade Runner were genetically engineered "replicants" since it would make more sense dramatically; the serial number on the snake scale was probably more fiction than science. Then again, there were the "toys" in the apartment which presumably were mechanically engineered, not biologically.
Oh, the horror if those little men were thinking biological creatures rather than mindless automitons ("Now, just sit very still when you're not needed to caper and entertain"). Shiver...
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, I was wondering why they aren't moving more quickly toward the mass market. I do notice that the web page looks a lot slick than it did a few years ago (or so I remember anyhow).
There are probably several reasons that none of us can go out and buy one right now. Obviously the charter of the project says that the goal is to explore new interface innovations in hand-held computing--these guys are just doing research and development, not necessarily even looking for a commercial poduct. Also, I imagine that there may be some marketing thought the either consumers are not ready for such a device (the general consumer, I mean--I'm sure as hell ready) or that they need to exploit the market for stuff they already have out there more before moving on to something drastically better. Do you really think that Intel or AMD don't have some increadibly cool processors sitting around that aren't going to market for years because of stategy not technology reasons?
Anyhow, they provide directions on how to build your own itsy. I just signed up to have the url for the directions emailed to me. I wonder if interested Slashdoters could get some sort of bulk discount on the necessary parts?
Introducing: THE ITSYSLASH! cool.
My company (Kinkos) used surfwatch for a year. After that year almost every technology manager in the country banned together to get Surfwatch taken out of the computer bundles. Spending a vast amount of time explaining to customers why they cannot access innocent websites, or send personal web-based email with blue words in them, turned out to be an incredible waste of time and loss of revenue.
It has now been more than a year without any sort of filtering software on any of the 18,000 public terminals in Kinkos around the world and we have not had a single report of any children corrupted by pornography. The computer services staff is more sane, and Kinkos is making more money.
I personally do not believe that it's ethical to put any sort of filters on library computers, and professionally I just don't think it will end up working.
Having said that, I think it's important to note that the Holland libraries (if i remember correctly from the local news stories) had already installed a filtering system with card readers for smart chips in library cards. Library patrons over 18 were given unrestricted access by default, while those under 18 were given the most restriced access by default; parents could choose to adjust the access of their children's cards (or their own cards). This seemed like a pretty sane system to me, but appearantly the FRC doesn't want anyone to have an option.
Sad.
Since things like the glass and lenses on color copier can be and are regularly replaced, they would not be useful in tracking. If you read the article you will find that they are actually talking about centrally tracked serial numbers.
As a color key-op you should know that the resolution on most color copiers is limited to 40dpi and that the gamut is limited to CMYK.
So, no color copiers can almost never produce anything like a "perfect" copy.
... and this is something we've known about for years. Most color copiers do embed a serial number and many--particularly canons--will shutdown if you try to copy currency.
While the owner of the copier may not be officially required to register with the manufacturer, most non-consumer grade equipment needs to be serviced at least once a month. For example, each color copy generates a small amount of excess toner which is scraped off into a waste toner bottle; Xerox decided not to make this a user serviceable part on the Docucolor 40's (which are in almost every Kinko's in the world).
Kinko's, however, is generally more interested in making money and avoiding lawsuits than invading anyone's privacy. Every Kinko's Co-Worker is trained in the copy guidelines generated by our pack or ravenous lawyers about what we can copy and how. For example, the kid in the article should of been told that we can copy his driver's license but only in black and white and only at 129 percent.
Anyhow, for your extra dose of paranoia today consider this: even most of the new black and white copiers (from the Docutech to the Xerox 265) actually digitize and and store the images rather than flashing them to an analog transfer belt. All these copiers are equiped with a modem.
As stated previously 1337 is elite. Back in the bbs (bulletin board system) days, elite was a kind of "trusted" access that would allow download of pirated software.
As a sidebar, I find it interesting that many of the "elite" people I know from those days (not the script kiddies who spell things like 1337) are now heavily into the opensource movement and claim that it was about free speech not free beer all along. I dunno...
I just browsed through the etoys site and found a contacts page with email addresses.
I would suggest that we all contact investor relations and politely explain our displeasure. You may wish to point out to them that they are not only wrong, but they are also throwing away potentially very lucrative business from computer-savy young professionals. I think this is just the kind of things investors would want to know about; we should let them know.
Yeah, Blade Runner was the first thing i thought of when i saw this.
I'm pretty sure that the snake (and the owl) in Blade Runner were genetically engineered "replicants" since it would make more sense dramatically; the serial number on the snake scale was probably more fiction than science. Then again, there were the "toys" in the apartment which presumably were mechanically engineered, not biologically.
Oh, the horror if those little men were thinking biological creatures rather than mindless automitons ("Now, just sit very still when you're not needed to caper and entertain"). Shiver...