Until now it was a discussion by a few obscure geeks over the question wether the DMCA restricts their right to free speech or not.
Now there is a case where every idiot can see that the DMCA can be used to restrict the right of free speech and that what is happening now can in no way be constitutional.
This could (and hopefully will) backfire in a big way.
The Amiga OS did not really have a disk cache.
Basically linux (most modern OSes really) use free ram to buffer files that were recently accessed which is usually better then just simply copying the whole system into ram.
Amiga OS wouldn't do that, making disk access rather slow. On the other side it was usually quite save to just flip the switch on the machine , as long as the floppy wasn't active it was OK since no vital structures were buffered into RAM.
BTW: Copying the whole System into the ramdisk was
somewhat of a brute force approach. There was disk caching software available (only read cache usually), I can dimly remember using it.
Well, here is the register's version of the story and you don't have to hand in DNA samples to read it. Not that it helped _me_ very much understanding the patent it is definatly beyond my english skills. Ciao, Peter
The possibility of emulating other instructions sets has been discussed before.
Personaly of course I'd like to see an A68k Emulation to make my Amiga take off and finally have a nice CPU again I can code assembler for;) Maybe some part of custom chip emulations could be done in the codmorphing layer too. But to be realistic there are three things that bar the way to other 'plugins':
It is not very likely that the simulated instruction set has a way to fall back into nativ Transmeta code. This would be a security risk (No MMU?)
Trade secret. They won't just give the information about codemorphing away, thats the very core of their company, so they'd have to assign staff inside transmeta to do a layer for another CPU.
The trouble with the first prototype (16 Bit Code Issue) suggests that there is a lot of horsetrading involved between implementing the morphing layer and designing hardware. They had to change the hardware to make 16 Bit fast and it is reasonable to expect similar difficulties when moving to other architectures.
That's exactly the point, they don't want a native OS. They want to be able to change instructions in the chip (or the chip itself) without breaking existing programs. They could make a new chip, with completely different instruction sets and as long as you have the firmware for that chip, the software will run
Of course I understand why they don't want to have native OS. My point was that a lot of people (including me) were dreaming about a native OS, because most of the most obviuous advantages of code morphing are not all that important if you use open source software that can be recompiled to completly fit the current architecture. But if it's true that the Crusoe lacks some of the more fundamental parts of a Mircoprocessor and simluates them in software this is just impossible. At last if you want to have a real OS(TM) Not that one would need a real *reason* for a project like that, altough its always nice to have an excuse for hoplessly insane projects. Hell, hacking into the morphing code and trying to figure out how to programm that beast native sounds like fun and making something work that way even more.
Well I've posted an article aboout that somwhere in this discussion but I think we overlapped a bit;)
Before reading this article I thought pretty much the same reagardless how nicely and efficent codemorphing is, it causes overhead and slows execution down. The fact that Crusoe still (seems) to keep up with real natice implementations of the instruction set hints a a very high potential for native applications. So far so good.
But
As I read it (please correct me if I'm wrong) the crusoe does not have a MMU at last not a fully functional. So some part of that is loaded off to the Software layer as well, which makes sense since the morphing software does not need an MMU and we need to filter memory access anyway (for those virtual devices). There are other things as well. Does the Crusoe have a privilege system? I doubt it, because it's not needed. These things can be handled solely in software. The engenieers at transmeta took quite a lot of shortcuts when designing this CPU and as a result it's quite possible that an OS implementation on the bare Transmeta Instruction set would not be possible without seriously compromising the OS.
Plus I could imagine that Crusoe would be a real pain to program. But if I'd be in a position to know that the only pain would probably result from all the glue I put on my chair;)
Now up until I read that article I always wondered, why Transmeta refused to reveal their code or port an Operation System to the native instruction set of their CPU. There were several quit good reasons given for that but this article came up with another one at last I wasn't aware of:
Nor did it have memoy management in the front end of the machine Now do I read this correctly? The Transmeta does not have a MMU in the usual sense? No Memory protection and such? I can clearly see why something like that could be left to software, especially if you target more than one intruction set but this would definetly a problem if you ever wanted to build a native OS for Transmeta CPUs.
Well if you think about it. The Crusoe absolutely *has* to behave like a normal x86 the Software is written for. This absolutly must include the behaviour when using wrong addresses, dividing by zero or other niceties and all those errors have to occure at the right place and the right time (time on the simulated side). Exceptions might be caught. by the software (e.g. to display a bluescreen) and sometimes Programmers depend on it. If I have a division by zero that I catch I want to break off execution at exactly the place the division occurs. Not before and not after. And I can see where this is quite difficult to handle. Anyone remembers the/. Discussion when the patents about this problem were revealed?
Another thing: The Transmeta was not the first Chip that had massive Problems with 16 Bit Software was it? And this was a Problem because of the same Operationg system, too.
Because for a toy company the name is *everything*. Their products and offerings are pretty much interchangeable, so they have to rely on brand awareness to sell stuff at higher price. They spend a lot of money to build that awareness and put back a significant amount of money to defend it. Ciao, Peter
OK, I'll try to get this straight but I'm not a musician ans thus not overtly envolved with the GEMA, but I'll try. GEMA is an abbreviation for Gesellschaft fuer Musikalische Ausfuehrungs- und Mechanische Vervielfaeltigungsrechte. Or (badly) translated: Society for musical performance and mechanical reproduction rights (of the music;). The Basic Idea behind this is to have a way to compensate an artist (Musician in case of GEMA) for his work, even when it is copied. This is done by collecting money from everyone who reproduces copies of music or on supplies needed to copy it. Tapes, CD-Rs (special ones with a GEMA Signature wich are extremly overpriced BTW). This of course includes broadcasting of music or public performance of songs written by someone else. You need to register with GEMA, pay and off you go. This money is used to do such useful things like pensions for artists. The nice thing about the whole thing is, that currently with paying the GEMA-Fees on Tapes ETC you have a _right_ to copy things that are protected for private use. At last for analog devices this is pretty certain, e.g. it is illegal (or at last it was, EU might have changed that) to put Macrovision signals on a Tape. Unfortunatly it is not that easy with digital media. But the fact that I pay GEMA on the recorder AND (well theoretically) for the CD-Rs would make copying CDs for personal use (very important!) legal. BTW: It doesn't matter wether you actually *use* your recorder/tape/whatever to store information that is protected by GEMA or not. You pay for the ability to do so. Of course if HP sold CD-Recorders that are not capable of burning audio CDs (or at last made sure they would only burn audio on GEMA-CDRs) matters would probably be different. Ciao, Peter (who hopes this was not too far off.) PS: Artist == GEMA member, what did _you_ expect?;)
Wether we like it or not, this is going to be settled in court and this is not finished yet. If DeCSS is outlawed, this will give the MPA an instrument against everyone (in the US at last) that distributes it and considering who owns the media - what do you think will the average american think about those who get arrested?
There is a chance that you are right, but that is all it is. A chance. Moveable type, radio, television were similar chances and look what happened.
Now all they need is to extend this to RL and they can listen to *every* conversation between more than two people (two people could be difficult) without court permission.
Aehem me or the CmdrTaco? Anyway, I don't think so, thats what the article is about. This is a glove and it seems to be constructed out of standard components:" An Analog Devices 2 axis ADXL 202 accelerometer". They even give the name of the manufacturer. But it _could_ be done this way. In that case the MEMS would be really small versions of the above mentioned device that connect to controller via radio instead of wires. The controller could then be placed somwhere near the computer instead of beeing strapped to the wrist. When I read the article I thought they would use some kind of positionig system to determine the _absolute_ position of the Fingertips, not acceleration. Ciao, Peter
I happend more or less by accident over this. Note that I am still rather new to slashdot and don't know about all of its features yet. Hint: Up to a few minutes ago I didn't even know that not all articles show up on the main page. This is sad, especially in this case.
IMO The most important sentence in that article: Industry backed self-regulation has done little to protect online privacy. We believe that legally enforceable standards are necessary to ensure compliance with Fair Information Practices. And new techniques for anonymity are necessary to protect online privacy. Self regulation seldom works and in this case there is far too much money in it. What happens to a site or corporation that intentionally violates peoples privacy? What happened to M$ after this Windows-ID buisness? Real Networks after their Data-Collection came to light? I really miss twho things in this article: 1.) They forgot to mention that once personal data and profiles are 'in the wild' they are impossible to withdraw. If you favorite porn site (Oh, sorry, forgot YOU dont have one;) sells your profile, or is hacked and someone puts it up for download somwhere you dont stand a chance. This is not like a stolen car that can be replaced. How many personalities do you have? 2.) A lot of people are worried about privacy. Nobody (OK, very few) will voluntarily generate and publish a profile about virtually every aspect of their private Life. But you don't have to. If you move around the 'net long enough the end effect, if not tightly controlled, will be the same. A small dribble of information here, a small bit there is all it takes. Information is a valuable item and it is traded in very high volume. Those small bits and pieces, every lapse, every mistake will be collected and matched up. It takes time but at the end your profile will be there. Controlling and limiting collecting of personal data is one, undoubtably important, thing. But it is even more important to controll and limit the trading of data. OK, I can already hear the screams... this is really a Question about how far a government should interfere with trade. Well im a european, we are really famous for that kind of thing, are we? Ciao, Peter
OK I took a small visit to google and found a rather good link collection about gesture recognition either using cameras or gloves. This things would make an interesting supplemet, especially if they could be permanently attached. (Maybe using bio-energy like those tracking devices mentioned a few days earlier). Ciao, Peter
Anyway, these don't sound too practical. A Keyboard is just there laying in front of the computer. If I want to type something, I just do it. For those sensors I *always* have to put them on, that sounds way to cumbersome just to type a few words on the computer to answer an email or post a./ article. Implanting them would be a solution, only then it is quite difficult to switch them off...;) BTW, Typing on an invisible Keyboard without any feedback from the Keys sounds difficult. Personaly I would at last need the layout to be printed on the surface, better add a few structures to it so I can still type without looking down, so simlating a Keyboard with it isn't too attractive (for me). But it would be nice for recognising gestrues. Windows Bluescreen? Now, I think *everyone* can think about a gesture that would be perfectly suited to reboot the computer in that case, can't you? This would have quite some interesting applications and I think there are other projects about that. I remember one that was designed to recognize gesture language using cameras. Of course you need to track more that just the Fingers (which would require a very high resolution camers). Maybe a combination would be useful.
Hmmm, one camera focused to the Face, one (or two for some Kind of 3D) on the whole Body and these things on the Fingers and you put the action back into interaction;)
But/what/ does the government provide for ecommerce?
Well.. Streets for the Stuff you *can't* just transfer over the 'net (ever tried to get a sixpack trough a telephone line?), then there is the police, that at last *tries* to prevent bad boys to just take the nice goods you bought over the 'net.
I really can understand them for wanting a piece of that cake, but their methods are ridicilous. Now don't ask me about workable alternatives. The only one I could think would be a globaly standarized mechanism to tax the *source* (the ecommerce shops) but then again I can't see this happen.
Oh, incidentally. It takes quite some investments to really get into ecommerce. So the ones who (potentionally) get the benefit of tax-free sales are the big companies again. Small and mid sized shops will have *another* disadvantage in trade, not a good idea, really. Of course to prevent *that* it would be easy to just forget about sales taxation altogether and find money elswhere.
Hmmm, enforcing these laws isn't all that hard really. Unlike ordinary sales internet sales *are* trackable or at last muche easier. All they would have to do is randomly pick up a number of Citizens and screen their internet traffic for transactions. Standarized payment and shopping methods will come in handy here. Afterwards all you have to do is match up the numbers. If a enough get caught the rest will be cowered into beeing honest about it.
Of course this requires mechanisms for snooping on internet connections, standarized (monopolized if possible) methods, breakable encryption and of course the cooporation of all ISPs. Most of these are already in the works under the protection of various excuses and taxation of ecommerce is harmless compared to some other implications of it...
Oh, if as long as you don't buy goods that can be *delivered* via the internet it would be easier to tax the delivery man..
Only 20%? Get real;) By the way where would overweight fit in? It _can_ be physical _or_ menal. Or just a character flaw? Or is it just that the idea of mental illness being as common as physical illness unacceptable? *ROTFL*, Now OK, you don't know me. No, I can assure you it isn't. The Problem I have are the drugs (medicamentation or whatever you call it. Hey, this is somewhat beyond the stuff they teach at school;) are not a solution. We don't really understand how they work and they are only really effective when used against a physical illness. Mind you a 'chemical imbalance' may as well be viewd as a physical illness that manifests mental symthomps. In those cases you may actually be capable of doing something. In all other cases, like I wrote, using them is the same as curing cancer with painkillers. You may get rid of the pain for a while but the problem is still there and continiues to grow... Only drugs are so dammed easy compared with finding and fixing the real problem. Another Problem with saying 20% are mentally ill is deciding what mentally ill actually means, but I think that's pretty obvious. If someone says 20% are mentally ill this is IMO a Problem of setting the norm and definig what's abnorm or not (*You* try to get two psychatrists agreeing on the exact limits) _OR_ a common Problem that is _causing_ it. For physical Illnesses we can define limits where we can say that it's an illness or not (OK, we're talking statistics, so there are small areas where we can't decide and have to watch it). There are quite some projects that try to load of that decision to computers and that should. If you look at the psyche that is far more difficult. We can't just say 'if he behaves that way this will break this and that'. We have a lotmore Variation and we might as well say that behaviour patterns are changing, getting more diverse and moving into extremes instead of stating that 20% are mentally ill. The psyche of an individual is moulded by the society surrounding it. If the society changes the psyche of the average individual is bound to change too (maybe with a few generations offset). You are not required to _like_ the changes, but if you want to change them you would have to change society. Ciao, Peter
. A child has trouble learning in school. But it's not the fault of the teachers or their teaching method. Do we change the way we teach that child? /rant on Teachers? Sorry, but it is not the job of a teacher to correct errors made by the parents. My parents are both teachers and they frequently complain that an incereasingly number of children that enters school completly lacks even the most basic social scills. They don't know how to interact with other, they can't concentrate, they are completly indifferent to any kind of authority and do not accept any kind of rules. I agree that children who show those symptoms need help but what should a teacher do? School and with it the teacher depends on those things. It can't teach them. To help those children they need a very intensive care of specialized and caring psychologists, a teacher (in most cases) does not have the education for that and (in allo cases I konow) not nearlly the time for it. Additionaly the family has to cooporate, wich, unfortunatly, is not always the case. A 'normal' child needs a 'normal' family to grow up. This does not mean that every child that grows up in a brolen Family is abnormal, but many are. /rant off Ciao, Peter
OK, after going trough this thread and getting all worked up, try: Ozy and Millie an online comic who recently had a rather nice plotline about this. Head for the archives and start at:11/26/99.
Slashdot Mirror
MS got a QA department?
Until now it was a discussion by a few obscure geeks over the question wether the DMCA restricts their right to free speech or not.
Now there is a case where every idiot can see that the DMCA can be used to restrict the right of free speech and that what is happening now can in no way be constitutional.
This could (and hopefully will) backfire in a big way.
Ciao, Dadith
The Amiga OS did not really have a disk cache.
Basically linux (most modern OSes really) use free ram to buffer files that were recently accessed which is usually better then just simply copying the whole system into ram.
Amiga OS wouldn't do that, making disk access rather slow. On the other side it was usually quite save to just flip the switch on the machine , as long as the floppy wasn't active it was OK since no vital structures were buffered into RAM.
BTW: Copying the whole System into the ramdisk was
somewhat of a brute force approach. There was disk caching software available (only read cache usually), I can dimly remember using it.
Well, here is the register's version of the story and you don't have to hand in DNA samples to read it.
Not that it helped _me_ very much understanding the patent it is definatly beyond my english skills. Ciao, Peter
Personaly of course I'd like to see an A68k Emulation to make my Amiga take off and finally have a nice CPU again I can code assembler for
Maybe some part of custom chip emulations could be done in the codmorphing layer too.
But to be realistic there are three things that bar the way to other 'plugins':
It is not very likely that the simulated instruction set has a way to fall back into nativ Transmeta code. This would be a security risk (No MMU?)
Trade secret. They won't just give the information about codemorphing away, thats the very core of their company, so they'd have to assign staff inside transmeta to do a layer for another CPU.
The trouble with the first prototype (16 Bit Code Issue) suggests that there is a lot of horsetrading involved between implementing the morphing layer and designing hardware. They had to change the hardware to make 16 Bit fast and it is reasonable to expect similar difficulties when moving to other architectures.
Ciao, Peter
That's exactly the point, they don't want a native OS. They want to be able to change instructions in the chip (or the chip itself) without breaking existing programs. They could make a new chip, with completely different instruction
sets and as long as you have the firmware for that chip, the software will run
Of course I understand why they don't want to have native OS. My point was that a lot of people (including me) were dreaming about a native OS, because most of the most obviuous advantages of code morphing are not all that important if you use open source software that can be recompiled
to completly fit the current architecture.
But if it's true that the Crusoe lacks some of the more fundamental parts of a Mircoprocessor and simluates them in software this is just impossible. At last if you want to have a real OS(TM)
Not that one would need a real *reason* for a project like that, altough its always nice to have an excuse for hoplessly insane projects. Hell, hacking into the morphing code and trying to figure out how to programm that beast native sounds like fun and making something work that way even more.
Ciao, Peter
Well I've posted an article aboout that somwhere in this discussion but I think we overlapped a bit ;)
;)
Before reading this article I thought pretty much the same reagardless how nicely and efficent codemorphing is, it causes overhead and slows execution down. The fact that Crusoe still (seems) to keep up with real natice implementations of the instruction set hints a a very high potential for native applications. So far so good.
But
As I read it (please correct me if I'm wrong) the crusoe does not have a MMU at last not a fully functional. So some part of that is loaded off to the Software layer as well, which makes sense since the morphing software does not need an MMU and we need to filter memory access anyway (for those virtual devices). There are other things as well. Does the Crusoe have a privilege system? I doubt it, because it's not needed. These things can be handled solely in software.
The engenieers at transmeta took quite a lot of shortcuts when designing this CPU and as a result it's quite possible that an OS implementation on the bare Transmeta Instruction set would not be possible without seriously compromising the OS.
Plus I could imagine that Crusoe would be a real pain to program. But if I'd be in a position to know that the only pain would probably result from all the glue I put on my chair
Ciao, Peter
Now up until I read that article I always wondered, why Transmeta refused to reveal their code or port an Operation System to the native instruction set of their CPU. There were several quit good reasons given for that but this article came up with another one at last I wasn't aware of:
Nor did it have memoy management in the front end of the machine
Now do I read this correctly? The Transmeta does not have a MMU in the usual sense? No Memory protection and such? I can clearly see why something like that could be left to software, especially if you target more than one intruction set but this would definetly a problem if you ever wanted to build a native OS for Transmeta CPUs.
Ciao, Peter
Well if you think about it. The Crusoe absolutely *has* to behave like a normal x86 the Software is written for. This absolutly must include the behaviour when using wrong addresses, dividing by zero or other niceties and all those errors have to occure at the right place and the right time (time on the simulated side). Exceptions might be caught. by the software (e.g. to display a bluescreen) and sometimes Programmers depend on it. If I have a division by zero that I catch I want to break off execution at exactly the place the division occurs. Not before and not after. And I can see where this is quite difficult to handle. /. Discussion when the patents about this problem were revealed?
Anyone remembers the
Another thing: The Transmeta was not the first Chip that had massive Problems with 16 Bit Software was it? And this was a Problem because of the same Operationg system, too.
Ciao, Peter
Because for a toy company the name is *everything*. Their products and offerings are pretty much interchangeable, so they have to rely on brand awareness to sell stuff at higher price. They spend a lot of money to build that awareness and put back a significant amount of money to defend it.
Ciao, Peter
OK, I'll try to get this straight but I'm not a musician ans thus not overtly envolved with the GEMA, but I'll try. GEMA is an abbreviation for Gesellschaft fuer Musikalische Ausfuehrungs- und Mechanische Vervielfaeltigungsrechte. Or (badly) translated: Society for musical performance and mechanical reproduction rights (of the music ;). ;)
The Basic Idea behind this is to have a way to compensate an artist (Musician in case of GEMA) for his work, even when it is copied. This is done by collecting money from everyone who reproduces copies of music or on supplies needed to copy it. Tapes, CD-Rs (special ones with a GEMA Signature wich are extremly overpriced BTW). This of course includes broadcasting of music or public performance of songs written by someone else. You need to register with GEMA, pay and off you go. This money is used to do such useful things like pensions for artists.
The nice thing about the whole thing is, that currently with paying the GEMA-Fees on Tapes ETC you have a _right_ to copy things that are protected for private use. At last for analog devices this is pretty certain, e.g. it is illegal (or at last it was, EU might have changed that) to put Macrovision signals on a Tape. Unfortunatly it is not that easy with digital media. But the fact that I pay GEMA on the recorder AND (well theoretically) for the CD-Rs would make copying CDs for personal use (very important!) legal.
BTW: It doesn't matter wether you actually *use* your recorder/tape/whatever to store information that is protected by GEMA or not. You pay for the ability to do so. Of course if HP sold CD-Recorders that are not capable of burning audio CDs (or at last made sure they would only burn audio on GEMA-CDRs) matters would probably be different.
Ciao, Peter (who hopes this was not too far off.)
PS: Artist == GEMA member, what did _you_ expect?
This battle is far from won.
Wether we like it or not, this is going to be settled in court and this is not finished yet. If DeCSS is outlawed, this will give the MPA an instrument against everyone (in the US at last) that distributes it and considering who owns the media - what do you think will the average american think about those who get arrested?
There is a chance that you are right, but that is all it is. A chance. Moveable type, radio, television were similar chances and look what happened.
Ciao, Peter
Now all they need is to extend this to RL and they can listen to *every* conversation between more than two people (two people could be difficult) without court permission.
STASI anyone?
Ciao, Peter
.. during the last months I really got the impression that the US had completly lost control of several branches of their government.
Ciao, Peter
Aehem me or the CmdrTaco?
Anyway, I don't think so, thats what the article is about. This is a glove and it seems to be constructed out of standard components:" An Analog Devices 2 axis ADXL 202 accelerometer". They even give the name of the manufacturer. But it _could_ be done this way. In that case the MEMS would be really small versions of the above mentioned device that connect to controller via radio instead of wires. The controller could then be placed somwhere near the computer instead of beeing strapped to the wrist.
When I read the article I thought they would use some kind of positionig system to determine the _absolute_ position of the Fingertips, not acceleration.
Ciao, Peter
I agree ...
I happend more or less by accident over this. Note that I am still rather new to slashdot and don't know about all of its features yet. Hint: Up to a few minutes ago I didn't even know that not all articles show up on the main page. This is sad, especially in this case.
And _yes_ this is one of my most favorite topics.
Ciao, Peter
IMO The most important sentence in that article: ;) sells your profile, or is hacked and someone puts it up for download somwhere you dont stand a chance. This is not like a stolen car that can be replaced. How many personalities do you have? ... this is really a Question about how far a government should interfere with trade. Well im a european, we are really famous for that kind of thing, are we?
Industry backed self-regulation has done little to protect online privacy. We believe that legally enforceable standards are necessary to ensure compliance with Fair Information Practices. And new techniques for anonymity are necessary to protect online privacy.
Self regulation seldom works and in this case there is far too much money in it. What happens to a site or corporation that intentionally violates peoples privacy? What happened to M$ after this Windows-ID buisness? Real Networks after their Data-Collection came to light?
I really miss twho things in this article:
1.) They forgot to mention that once personal data and profiles are 'in the wild' they are impossible to withdraw. If you favorite porn site (Oh, sorry, forgot YOU dont have one
2.) A lot of people are worried about privacy. Nobody (OK, very few) will voluntarily generate and publish a profile about virtually every aspect of their private Life. But you don't have to. If you move around the 'net long enough the end effect, if not tightly controlled, will be the same. A small dribble of information here, a small bit there is all it takes. Information is a valuable item and it is traded in very high volume. Those small bits and pieces, every lapse, every mistake will be collected and matched up. It takes time but at the end your profile will be there.
Controlling and limiting collecting of personal data is one, undoubtably important, thing. But it is even more important to controll and limit the trading of data. OK, I can already hear the screams
Ciao, Peter
OK I took a small visit to google and found a rather good link collection about gesture recognition either using cameras or gloves. This things would make an interesting supplemet, especially if they could be permanently attached. (Maybe using bio-energy like those tracking devices mentioned a few days earlier).
Ciao, Peter
I cant find the article, anyone has a Link?
./ article. Implanting them would be a solution, only then it is quite difficult to switch them off ... ;) BTW, Typing on an invisible Keyboard without any feedback from the Keys sounds difficult. Personaly I would at last need the layout to be printed on the surface, better add a few structures to it so I can still type without looking down, so simlating a Keyboard with it isn't too attractive (for me). But it would be nice for recognising gestrues. Windows Bluescreen? Now, I think *everyone* can think about a gesture that would be perfectly suited to reboot the computer in that case, can't you? This would have quite some interesting applications and I think there are other projects about that. I remember one that was designed to recognize gesture language using cameras. Of course you need to track more that just the Fingers (which would require a very high resolution camers). Maybe a combination would be useful.
;)
Anyway, these don't sound too practical. A Keyboard is just there laying in front of the computer. If I want to type something, I just do it. For those sensors I *always* have to put them on, that sounds way to cumbersome just to type a few words on the computer to answer an email or post a
Hmmm, one camera focused to the Face, one (or two for some Kind of 3D) on the whole Body and these things on the Fingers and you put the action back into interaction
Ciao, Peter
But /what/ does
.. Streets for the Stuff you *can't* just transfer over the 'net (ever tried to get a sixpack trough a telephone line?), then there is the police, that at last *tries* to prevent bad boys to just take the nice goods you bought over the 'net.
the government provide for ecommerce?
Well
I really can understand them for wanting a piece of that cake, but their methods are ridicilous. Now don't ask me about workable alternatives. The only one I could think would be a globaly standarized mechanism to tax the *source* (the ecommerce shops) but then again I can't see this happen.
Oh, incidentally. It takes quite some investments to really get into ecommerce. So the ones who (potentionally) get the benefit of tax-free sales are the big companies again. Small and mid sized shops will have *another* disadvantage in trade, not a good idea, really. Of course to prevent *that* it would be easy to just forget about sales taxation altogether and find money elswhere.
Ciao, Peter
Hmmm, enforcing these laws isn't all that hard really. Unlike ordinary sales internet sales *are* trackable or at last muche easier. All they would have to do is randomly pick up a number of Citizens and screen their internet traffic for transactions. Standarized payment and shopping methods will come in handy here. Afterwards all you have to do is match up the numbers. If a enough get caught the rest will be cowered into beeing honest about it.
...
..
Of course this requires mechanisms for snooping on internet connections, standarized (monopolized if possible) methods, breakable encryption and of course the cooporation of all ISPs. Most of these are already in the works under the protection of various excuses and taxation of ecommerce is harmless compared to some other implications of it
Oh, if as long as you don't buy goods that can be *delivered* via the internet it would be easier to tax the delivery man
Ciao, Peter
Only 20%? Get real ;) ;) are not a solution. We don't really understand how they work and they are only really effective when used against a physical illness. Mind you a 'chemical imbalance' may as well be viewd as a physical illness that manifests mental symthomps. In those cases you may actually be capable of doing something. In all other cases, like I wrote, using them is the same as curing cancer with painkillers. You may get rid of the pain for a while but the problem is still there and continiues to grow ...
By the way where would overweight fit in? It _can_ be physical _or_ menal. Or just a character flaw?
Or is it just that the idea of mental illness being as common as physical illness unacceptable?
*ROTFL*, Now OK, you don't know me.
No, I can assure you it isn't.
The Problem I have are the drugs (medicamentation or whatever you call it. Hey, this is somewhat beyond the stuff they teach at school
Only drugs are so dammed easy compared with finding and fixing the real problem.
Another Problem with saying 20% are mentally ill is deciding what mentally ill actually means, but I think that's pretty obvious. If someone says 20% are mentally ill this is IMO a Problem of setting the norm and definig what's abnorm or not (*You* try to get two psychatrists agreeing on the exact limits) _OR_ a common Problem that is _causing_ it. For physical Illnesses we can define limits where we can say that it's an illness or not (OK, we're talking statistics, so there are small areas where we can't decide and have to watch it). There are quite some projects that try to load of that decision to computers and that should. If you look at the psyche that is far more difficult. We can't just say 'if he behaves that way this will break this and that'. We have a lotmore Variation and we might as well say that behaviour patterns are changing, getting more diverse and moving into extremes instead of stating that 20% are mentally ill. The psyche of an individual is moulded by the society surrounding it. If the society changes the psyche of the average individual is bound to change too (maybe with a few generations offset). You are not required to _like_ the changes, but if you want to change them you would have to change society.
Ciao, Peter
. A child has trouble learning in school. But it's not the fault of the teachers or their teaching method. Do we change the way we teach that child?
/rant on
/rant off
Teachers? Sorry, but it is not the job of a teacher to correct errors made by the parents. My parents are both teachers and they frequently complain that an incereasingly number of children that enters school completly lacks even the most basic social scills. They don't know how to interact with other, they can't concentrate, they are completly indifferent to any kind of authority and do not accept any kind of rules.
I agree that children who show those symptoms need help but what should a teacher do? School and with it the teacher depends on those things. It can't teach them. To help those children they need a very intensive care of specialized and caring psychologists, a teacher (in most cases) does not have the education for that and (in allo cases I konow) not nearlly the time for it. Additionaly the family has to cooporate, wich, unfortunatly, is not always the case.
A 'normal' child needs a 'normal' family to grow up. This does not mean that every child that grows up in a brolen Family is abnormal, but many are.
Ciao, Peter
Uhm, there seems to be an error in that URL. If above link doesnt work, try http://www.nih.gov/mhsgrpt/toc.html
Ciao, Peter.
OK, after going trough this thread and getting all worked up, try: Ozy and Millie an online comic who recently had a rather nice plotline about this. Head for the archives and start at:11/26/99.
Have Fun and and stay good (==normal)
Ciao, Peter