Apparently some folks are unaware of the origin of the setting for Halo. The physicist Dyson postulated the Dyson sphere. Larry Niven wrote the novel "Ringworld" set in a structure representing a variation (a slice) of a Dyson sphere. The first Halo game is set on a small version of the Ringworld.
It's no secret that Sony wants to use the PS/3 as a vehicle to get Blu-ray units into people's living rooms. They expect to lose money on the consoles, but make it back through licensing from game makers and (much) more importantly sales of Blu-ray movies from their entertainment division. Also, if Blu-ray becomes a standard - they'll collect royalties from other consumer electronics manufacturers and other content providers.
Microsoft's stock price as been stuck in a narrow trading range for several years. To increase it they need growth. The Xbox is more about moving from the home 'office' into the living room. Their goal is living room domination by offering a gaming device that morphs into a media center and ultimately a set-top box. If they lose money on the consoles, well so be it.
Nintendo - they just want to sell you entertaining games.
Is it any wonder, then, that Jamie would grow facial hair? It is well known that one reason people grow facial hair is to build a personal "wall" between themselves and the world. Behind this wall, they can smile, frown, grimace, snicker, and otherwise run the emotional gamut without revealing themselves to others.
'we need an entire application written this week, don't worry about design or figuring out what the application really needs to do, just write something.'
here is no legitimate reason to strip the DRM from iTunes Store purchases
Itunes music didn't work particularly well on my Sandisk MP3 player till I burned it to CD-R and then extracted it as MP3. It quickly got to be too much hassle, so I stopped using Itunes.
Only a matter of time till both Apple and MS initiate lawsuits on those that cracked their DRM. No doubt aided and abetted by the **AA. The silver lining is that if this gets to the SC, the DMCA *might* get struck down as unconstitutional.
If you dig down into links on the site, there's some real technical detail. From my quick viewing I got that the system is distributed, XML-based, and supports two-factor authentication. You choose your registrar - register your credentials with them, and third parties can use XML requests to the registrar to verify your identity (without getting access to your credentials). Interesting - yes. Compelling - way to early to say (but like MS Passport, probably not).
It sounds like a single-sign-on system like Microsoft Passport (only w/o Microsoft). I didn't see any discussion of authentication. Microsoft used a central Microsoft controlled database. Companies were reluctant to allow Microsoft to be an intermediary between them and their customers. (And were more reluctant to pay another Microsoft tax). Consumers were wary of a central database of ID's controlled by Microsoft.
I saw no discussion of how authentication is supposed to work with this system, or more importantly who maintains the database(s) of credentials. For that matter, I saw no discussion of verification - I register 'George.Smith' and associate it with some contact meta-data. Do they verify any of that? Can I register 'George.W.Bush' or 'Bill.Gates'?
So far the site seems mostly to tout the low price. Great, it's cheap. What do I get? And why would I want it?
So I can download Outlaw Star for $3.99 per episode, or I can purchase a complete set of 26 episodes on 6 DVD's from Amazon for $43.88 (or $30.17 used). Of course with the on-line download I get all that special DRM goodness.
hink about all the advancements that came out of Bell Labs, before it had a need to be more "efficient".
Hmmm, very similar to what Lucent actually did with Bell Labs. But, it helped to make Lucent the company it is today. Oh, wait...
Microsoft will make Office available for Linux, when it decides that it will make more money selling Office to a new market than it will lose in the Windows OS space. MS sells new versions of Office because 1) it has new features that users want and 2) they've changed formats and users must upgrade to be compatible with external Office users. My opinion is that MS hit a wall years ago on item #1 (i.e. they've been adding obscure features most users don't use or care about). On item #2, they're slowly being driven (kicking and screaming) to support a standard XML format. If this truly comes to pass, then they need to look for new untapped markets for Office. The biggest one being Linux users. At that point it'll be an internal battle between the Office product managers vs. the Windows product managers. I would not hazard a guess as to how that'll turn out.
So you actually think that acting outside the constitution is Okay? That is never justified, and is the price we pay for being civilized.
Abraham Lincoln suspended some constitutional rights (for example he suspended habeas corpus) during the Civil War. Franklin Roosevelt authorized massive surveillance and censorship during WWII. Sometimes the temporary suspension of some rights is the price we pay to defend civilization.
Wow! The initial news reports about the TracFone 'terrorism' were way off. And I drew totally invalid inferences. In other words I was wrong.
Doesn't change my mind about the NSA court ruling - I still think the judge is wrong.
It'll be appealled - probably up to the Supreme Court. And hopefully will be reversed. Judging by news reports, the Jihadis are certainly adaptive. The latest wrinkle appears accumulating large quantities of TracFones bought for cash. This would allow them to use them for international calls - not tied to a particular subscriber or to one particular phone number. They can use the phone once and then throw it away.
They're playing our legal system against us - can't show probable cause, or get a court order w/o a subscriber name and one particular phone #. You can try to monitor TracFone calls to say 'Waziristan'. But not if the current ruling stands.
Slashdot Mirror
Real programmers input their programs in binary.
Apparently some folks are unaware of the origin of the setting for Halo. The physicist Dyson postulated the Dyson sphere. Larry Niven wrote the novel "Ringworld" set in a structure representing a variation (a slice) of a Dyson sphere. The first Halo game is set on a small version of the Ringworld.
I'd rather see them make a film of Larry Niven's Ringworld.
As long as Scotty throws the first punch at the Klingon for saying that the Enterprise should be hauled away as garbage, I'll be happy. :P
So where can I get the T-shirt?
It's no secret that Sony wants to use the PS/3 as a vehicle to get Blu-ray units into people's living rooms. They expect to lose money on the consoles, but make it back through licensing from game makers and (much) more importantly sales of Blu-ray movies from their entertainment division. Also, if Blu-ray becomes a standard - they'll collect royalties from other consumer electronics manufacturers and other content providers.
Microsoft's stock price as been stuck in a narrow trading range for several years. To increase it they need growth. The Xbox is more about moving from the home 'office' into the living room. Their goal is living room domination by offering a gaming device that morphs into a media center and ultimately a set-top box. If they lose money on the consoles, well so be it.
Nintendo - they just want to sell you entertaining games.
Is it any wonder, then, that Jamie would grow facial hair? It is well known that one reason people grow facial hair is to build a personal "wall" between themselves and the world. Behind this wall, they can smile, frown, grimace, snicker, and otherwise run the emotional gamut without revealing themselves to others.
Cryptonomicon - Charlene vs. Randy
Sony is charging $600 for their console, which will no doubt only have one controller
Plus you have to buy your own HDMI cable.
If at first you don't succeed, redefine 'success'.
'we need an entire application written this week, don't worry about design or figuring out what the application really needs to do, just write something.'
Wow, I used to work there too! Did you know Fred?
here is no legitimate reason to strip the DRM from iTunes Store purchases
Itunes music didn't work particularly well on my Sandisk MP3 player till I burned it to CD-R and then extracted it as MP3. It quickly got to be too much hassle, so I stopped using Itunes.
Only a matter of time till both Apple and MS initiate lawsuits on those that cracked their DRM. No doubt aided and abetted by the **AA. The silver lining is that if this gets to the SC, the DMCA *might* get struck down as unconstitutional.
If you dig down into links on the site, there's some real technical detail. From my quick viewing I got that the system is distributed, XML-based, and supports two-factor authentication. You choose your registrar - register your credentials with them, and third parties can use XML requests to the registrar to verify your identity (without getting access to your credentials). Interesting - yes. Compelling - way to early to say (but like MS Passport, probably not).
It sounds like a single-sign-on system like Microsoft Passport (only w/o Microsoft). I didn't see any discussion of authentication. Microsoft used a central Microsoft controlled database. Companies were reluctant to allow Microsoft to be an intermediary between them and their customers. (And were more reluctant to pay another Microsoft tax). Consumers were wary of a central database of ID's controlled by Microsoft. I saw no discussion of how authentication is supposed to work with this system, or more importantly who maintains the database(s) of credentials. For that matter, I saw no discussion of verification - I register 'George.Smith' and associate it with some contact meta-data. Do they verify any of that? Can I register 'George.W.Bush' or 'Bill.Gates'? So far the site seems mostly to tout the low price. Great, it's cheap. What do I get? And why would I want it?
So if you try to transfer to another school does the vice-principal throw a chair at you?
So I can download Outlaw Star for $3.99 per episode, or I can purchase a complete set of 26 episodes on 6 DVD's from Amazon for $43.88 (or $30.17 used). Of course with the on-line download I get all that special DRM goodness.
I expect Windows Vista to be a remarkably stable and reasonably secure operating system - AFTER Service Pack 1.
1) Point railgun at foot
2) Fire
3) Profit
hink about all the advancements that came out of Bell Labs, before it had a need to be more "efficient". Hmmm, very similar to what Lucent actually did with Bell Labs. But, it helped to make Lucent the company it is today. Oh, wait ...
SOYLENT GREEN IS ... network connection closed
Only if they didn't put sequence numbers on them.
Bye bye Redmond. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rods_from_god - but substitute 'Mainframe' for 'tungsten telephone pole'.
Microsoft will make Office available for Linux, when it decides that it will make more money selling Office to a new market than it will lose in the Windows OS space. MS sells new versions of Office because 1) it has new features that users want and 2) they've changed formats and users must upgrade to be compatible with external Office users. My opinion is that MS hit a wall years ago on item #1 (i.e. they've been adding obscure features most users don't use or care about). On item #2, they're slowly being driven (kicking and screaming) to support a standard XML format. If this truly comes to pass, then they need to look for new untapped markets for Office. The biggest one being Linux users. At that point it'll be an internal battle between the Office product managers vs. the Windows product managers. I would not hazard a guess as to how that'll turn out.
So you actually think that acting outside the constitution is Okay? That is never justified, and is the price we pay for being civilized.
Abraham Lincoln suspended some constitutional rights (for example he suspended habeas corpus) during the Civil War. Franklin Roosevelt authorized massive surveillance and censorship during WWII. Sometimes the temporary suspension of some rights is the price we pay to defend civilization.
Wow! The initial news reports about the TracFone 'terrorism' were way off. And I drew totally invalid inferences. In other words I was wrong. Doesn't change my mind about the NSA court ruling - I still think the judge is wrong.
It'll be appealled - probably up to the Supreme Court. And hopefully will be reversed. Judging by news reports, the Jihadis are certainly adaptive. The latest wrinkle appears accumulating large quantities of TracFones bought for cash. This would allow them to use them for international calls - not tied to a particular subscriber or to one particular phone number. They can use the phone once and then throw it away. They're playing our legal system against us - can't show probable cause, or get a court order w/o a subscriber name and one particular phone #. You can try to monitor TracFone calls to say 'Waziristan'. But not if the current ruling stands.