An easier solution would be to just have hourly changing codes
How exactly is that easier than turning off the WiFi router on weekends? Who's going to update the codes? Who's going to print up the six zillion little slips of paper with "this hour's code"? Who's going to set up the router to kick off 'expired' machines without interrupting legitimate users?
Besides, according to TFA "The staff doesn't want to have to enforce the cafe's unspoken policy of making a purchase to use the space (and the Wi-Fi)..."
This is similar to the Tranquility calendar, which was proposed in an Omni issue a decade or so ago.
The big problem is that pesky extra day. If it falls between dates, then it's an even bigger pain to code than the current calendar is. Unless we turn computers off from midnight to midnight, of course. Hey, maybe not so bad an idea...
"Outside the country" can make a very big difference, although most people tend to confuse the issue with patriotism or jingoism. The real difference is the law. Specifically, the difference in laws between sovereign nations is far greater than the difference in laws between towns or a "circle of acquaintances".
For example, I can be reasonably sure that a shirt made in the US was not made using child labor or forced labor. I can't say the same about, say, China, because the laws are much more lenient toward forced labor there. That's one of the primary reasons for the wage difference in the two countries: a legislated minimum wage and strict employment controls.
That isn't to say that Americans aren't wasteful consumer pigs, but any discussion that starts with outsourcing programmers for collaboration software isn't really talking about subsistence issues, is it?
I used a Linux desktop for three years (1999-2002), and it was a good three years. I never looked back to my Win*** days with fondness, and I felt smug whenever my co-workers got viruses I didn't. Of course, I also had a list of niggling gripes a mile long, not the least of which was my inability to find any usable applications where VERSION >= 1.0.
Switching to Mac OS X (first on my wife's iBook, then on my own TiBook) fixed all my gripes and only gave me a few new things to gripe about. Then, I noticed something amazing... I wasn't spending 10 hours/week fiddling with my system, updating packages, tweaking WM preferences, and searching endlessly for a GUI text editor as usable as BBEdit or UltraEdit.
Plus, it has vi! and Apache! and MySQL! and ImageMagick! and!!!1! I really haven't made it past the glow of using a system that JUST. PLAIN. WORKS. Perhaps Apple will do something really tyrannical (*cough* DRM *cough*) that will make me regret the switch, but for now I'm too happy to care.
~chris, who has to get back to his day job writing Open Source software (for servers)
Anyone who whines about the prices of these products probably uses it as a convenience, and not for critical work.
I wouldn't say I whine exactly, but I would love to be able to typeset a book I'm printing 2 copies of without needing thousand-dollar software. It's nice to know that it might just be possible to set the book for less than the cost of printing it.
To me, this argument is pretty transparent. These artists have each had a "hit" single plastered all over the radio at some point. I don't remember hearing any of them complain about the artistic integrity of the album when that happened. The only difference here is that folks are paying to listen to that single again.
The cases I can think of where album integrity is truly an issue (e.g. some Genesis or Pink Floyd albums) are few and far between. More often than not, these albums still have one or two tracks that make it to the radio as singles. Again, no complaints then.
It's plain that this is all about the (perceived) bottom line. The true "danger" in a service like iTMS is to filler tracks and best-of albums. I just can't seem to feel sad about that.
Actuallly, each of these "problems" (weightlessness, radiation, trip time, lag time) are solvable with current technology, and sending teams to Mars can be done for as little as $20 billion within 10 years.
There's an entire book written specifically to debunk these myths and present real solutions, and an active society devoted to making manned missions to Mars happen.
Of all the ULT concepts I've seen, I like SkyTran the best. Putting a raised track on light poles is a great idea, as is the switched on-ramp. I can really see these getting up to 100mph (160kph)
As a dedicated transit rider, I love the idea of hopping into a vehicle, setting a destination, and hopping out when I'm there. Let's hope these take off.
I really wonder whether releasing some of their books with a rather generous license harms or benefits the sales figures.
I honestly don't know. I've noticed that my Amazon Sales Rank seems to improve when there are more visitors to the site, though. I assume that more people find the book with a Google search than would find it on the bookshelves.
I can't help but make a shameless plug for my own free+online book about creating high-performance Web sites with Perl. Wait, I don't have to! My.sig will do it for me.:)
It doesnt work like that! everyone uses a different 20%, and you also restrict yourself from ever using any of the new features.
Ah, but in this case it's different on two counts:
Linux already implements most of the "features" of Windows, e.g. Web browsing, solitaire, MP3 player. It wouldn't be hard to make up for incompatible Windows programs with Linux programs.
In most business situations, that 20% is practically mandated. I worked in an office where most machines were stock Dells with Windows and Office pre-installed and no software installed after that. Apply that over millions of machines and you've got a pretty consistent 20%.
Of course, that's what I would do. Who knows if Lindows will do the same.
Case 4) Lindows is Linux running CodeWeaver's Wine to launch windows apps on demand.
Once again, this is no different that what could be done with SuSE, debian, mandrake, slackware, etc...
Actually, it could be very different, as proven by CodeWeavers. It's a big leap from "Wine supports some apps" to "Wine supports the Quicktime plugin", and CodeWeavers made that leap. (It was worth $20 to me, at least.)
Lindows could make the leap to "Wine supports Microsoft Office 2000", package it with a Redmond-themed Gnome/KDE, and make money doing so.
Although I haven't seen enough of Lindows to figure out whether they have anything, I certainly think this kind of project is feasible. Most people would say "Why not just use a normal distro and Wine?" Why? One reason: Tivo.
Tivo takes the base operating system and customizes it to suit one goal: being a PVR. I can barely get my Linux box to play VCDs reliably, and I consider myself a power user. However, Tivo gets to cut away all the cruft and options until they're left with a base system optimized for video recording and playback. The pieces are all solid, so they can make something fairly bulletproof in a short time.
So, if the stated goal of Lindows is narrow enough, it might work. Dvorak thinks that the goal should be to run Office, and I agree. Most Windows users I know run Office, AOL, and little else. For business applications, they don't even need AOL. (Well, they don't need it anyway, but you know what I mean.)
A cheap, pre-configured system that runs Office would be a market hit. Other applications could be "unsupported" without alienating many customers. Support a few popular Windows games later and you gain another market as well.
Like I said, who knows if they actually plan this. It certainly is a possibility, though.
Rather than seek out organizations or individuals related to the project itself, it's sometimes beneficial to find an implementation company (a la RedHat's model). They usually base their business on providing a stable release of an open source product, with support and such as a fee-based product.
For instance, I would go to ActiveState if I was planning to roll out a large Perl installation. They have core Perl developers on staff, and they already have release cycles and customer service in place. I'm sure there are similar companies for any major open source project.
Even if they're providing no more than the software itself, they still provide a single point of contact for technical questions and software updates. That in itself is usually worth the fees they charge.
I hope they get it back in shape. Altavista has a few tricks up its sleeve that Google hasn't matched yet, like the ability to do an exact-string search. I find that looking up names is sometimes easier with an AltaVista search:
+"Larry Wall" -"Perl"
AltaVista also allows meta searches, like "which pages link to mine?" Google just doesn't have that. I use it for everything else, though.
"From our standpoint, we are designing the software for the 99 percent of the people who don't want to steal the music... not for the 1 percent who are going to take the lock cutters and cut the lock off and steal music in an unauthorized way."
If I'm hearing this right, he's basically saying, "Our product doesn't keep people from stealing the music, it just causes hassles for folks who buy music and want to listen to it on their computers."
Where's the reason in that? Who exactly is getting protected here?
I have heard that faxes count as dead trees in this case. The basic process seems to involve stacking all the 'agree' and 'disagree' pieces of paper and taking the taller stack to indicate voter intent.
There's an excellent game called Tikal from Rio Grande Games that is non-zero-sum while still competitive. The game is complex enough for adults and requires multiple layers of meta-strategy.
The object of the game is to get as many points as possible. This is done by uncovering sections of an archaeological dig (Tikal) and assigning people to discover as much as they can. Resources and time are both limited, but it's possible to gain points from other players' sites without taking the points away from them. This is made possible by a stepped scoring system that allows each player to maximize points before they're tallied.
To me, the strongest aspect of this game is the Othello-like possibility of turning a competitor's points to your advantage without necessarily "robbing" them. It makes it possible to win the game by a comfortable margin even after trailing behind for most of the game.
Most of the problem is that the (and I say this with the utmost respect) stupid tree-hugging, nuke-fearing, tofu-eating, fur coat-painting enviornmentalists won't let anyone build the safest and cleanest method of power generation... nuclear plants. They should realize that despite their good intentions, they are eventually making things worse...
In a word, bullshit. (Sorry, kids.)
Nuclear power plants are 'clean' only in terms of air pollution. If you look at total waste over time, there isn't a power source on the planet that's more wasteful, besides maybe harnessed animals. What usually isn't considered in that 'clean' assessment is the refinement of uranium, the disposal of radioactive coolant and other radioactive tools, and the interesting problem of disposing of nuclear waste, which even Tower would probably balk at storing in his backyard for a few hundred thousand years.
Nukes are good for two things: submarines and starships. That's about it.
I do agree with one aspect of the article Tower recommended; government intervention in the power industry is making a ridiculous situation even sillier and will likely force a few companies out of business. It's never a good thing to cap the price of a product that way.
As an aside, solar or wind power is cheaper than existing power plants in the same way personal computers are cheaper than mainframe computing. It may be more expensive to start, but when you put the power generation decisions in the hands of the power users, the market encourages things to get very cheap very quickly.
~chris the tree-hugging, nuke-fearing, tofu-eating, solar-using programmer/physicist
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An easier solution would be to just have hourly changing codes
How exactly is that easier than turning off the WiFi router on weekends? Who's going to update the codes? Who's going to print up the six zillion little slips of paper with "this hour's code"? Who's going to set up the router to kick off 'expired' machines without interrupting legitimate users?
Besides, according to TFA "The staff doesn't want to have to enforce the cafe's unspoken policy of making a purchase to use the space (and the Wi-Fi)..."
The fact that, other than Star Wars, every creative act he's been involved in has been an unmitigated piece of crap sort of supports this.
...except Raiders of the Lost Ark. That was another case of Lucas hitting the mark by retelling an old adventure story.
This is similar to the Tranquility calendar, which was proposed in an Omni issue a decade or so ago.
The big problem is that pesky extra day. If it falls between dates, then it's an even bigger pain to code than the current calendar is. Unless we turn computers off from midnight to midnight, of course. Hey, maybe not so bad an idea...
I refuse to live any longer than 1000 years, though. Anything beyond that and I'd run out of new things to do.
"Outside the country" can make a very big difference, although most people tend to confuse the issue with patriotism or jingoism. The real difference is the law. Specifically, the difference in laws between sovereign nations is far greater than the difference in laws between towns or a "circle of acquaintances".
For example, I can be reasonably sure that a shirt made in the US was not made using child labor or forced labor. I can't say the same about, say, China, because the laws are much more lenient toward forced labor there. That's one of the primary reasons for the wage difference in the two countries: a legislated minimum wage and strict employment controls.
That isn't to say that Americans aren't wasteful consumer pigs, but any discussion that starts with outsourcing programmers for collaboration software isn't really talking about subsistence issues, is it?
I used a Linux desktop for three years (1999-2002), and it was a good three years. I never looked back to my Win*** days with fondness, and I felt smug whenever my co-workers got viruses I didn't. Of course, I also had a list of niggling gripes a mile long, not the least of which was my inability to find any usable applications where VERSION >= 1.0.
Switching to Mac OS X (first on my wife's iBook, then on my own TiBook) fixed all my gripes and only gave me a few new things to gripe about. Then, I noticed something amazing... I wasn't spending 10 hours/week fiddling with my system, updating packages, tweaking WM preferences, and searching endlessly for a GUI text editor as usable as BBEdit or UltraEdit.
Plus, it has vi! and Apache! and MySQL! and ImageMagick! and!!!1! I really haven't made it past the glow of using a system that JUST. PLAIN. WORKS. Perhaps Apple will do something really tyrannical (*cough* DRM *cough*) that will make me regret the switch, but for now I'm too happy to care.
~chris, who has to get back to his day job writing Open Source software (for servers)
Anyone who whines about the prices of these products probably uses it as a convenience, and not for critical work.
I wouldn't say I whine exactly, but I would love to be able to typeset a book I'm printing 2 copies of without needing thousand-dollar software. It's nice to know that it might just be possible to set the book for less than the cost of printing it.
To me, this argument is pretty transparent. These artists have each had a "hit" single plastered all over the radio at some point. I don't remember hearing any of them complain about the artistic integrity of the album when that happened. The only difference here is that folks are paying to listen to that single again.
The cases I can think of where album integrity is truly an issue (e.g. some Genesis or Pink Floyd albums) are few and far between. More often than not, these albums still have one or two tracks that make it to the radio as singles. Again, no complaints then.
It's plain that this is all about the (perceived) bottom line. The true "danger" in a service like iTMS is to filler tracks and best-of albums. I just can't seem to feel sad about that.
Actuallly, each of these "problems" (weightlessness, radiation, trip time, lag time) are solvable with current technology, and sending teams to Mars can be done for as little as $20 billion within 10 years.
There's an entire book written specifically to debunk these myths and present real solutions, and an active society devoted to making manned missions to Mars happen.
Don't knock it until you have all the facts!
How will we tell the people from the machines if we can't refer to them as carbon-based and silicon-based life anymore?
Of all the ULT concepts I've seen, I like SkyTran the best. Putting a raised track on light poles is a great idea, as is the switched on-ramp. I can really see these getting up to 100mph (160kph)
As a dedicated transit rider, I love the idea of hopping into a vehicle, setting a destination, and hopping out when I'm there. Let's hope these take off.
Until then, I'll settle for a Segway. :)
~chris
I really wonder whether releasing some of their books with a rather generous license harms or benefits the sales figures.
I honestly don't know. I've noticed that my Amazon Sales Rank seems to improve when there are more visitors to the site, though. I assume that more people find the book with a Google search than would find it on the bookshelves.
~chris
I can't help but make a shameless plug for my own free+online book about creating high-performance Web sites with Perl. Wait, I don't have to! My .sig will do it for me. :)
~chris
It doesnt work like that! everyone uses a different 20%, and you also restrict yourself from ever using any of the new features.
Ah, but in this case it's different on two counts:
Of course, that's what I would do. Who knows if Lindows will do the same.
~chris
Case 4) Lindows is Linux running CodeWeaver's Wine to launch windows apps on demand.
Once again, this is no different that what could be done with SuSE, debian, mandrake, slackware, etc...
Actually, it could be very different, as proven by CodeWeavers. It's a big leap from "Wine supports some apps" to "Wine supports the Quicktime plugin", and CodeWeavers made that leap. (It was worth $20 to me, at least.)
Lindows could make the leap to "Wine supports Microsoft Office 2000", package it with a Redmond-themed Gnome/KDE, and make money doing so.
~chris
Although I haven't seen enough of Lindows to figure out whether they have anything, I certainly think this kind of project is feasible. Most people would say "Why not just use a normal distro and Wine?" Why? One reason: Tivo.
Tivo takes the base operating system and customizes it to suit one goal: being a PVR. I can barely get my Linux box to play VCDs reliably, and I consider myself a power user. However, Tivo gets to cut away all the cruft and options until they're left with a base system optimized for video recording and playback. The pieces are all solid, so they can make something fairly bulletproof in a short time.
So, if the stated goal of Lindows is narrow enough, it might work. Dvorak thinks that the goal should be to run Office, and I agree. Most Windows users I know run Office, AOL, and little else. For business applications, they don't even need AOL. (Well, they don't need it anyway, but you know what I mean.)
A cheap, pre-configured system that runs Office would be a market hit. Other applications could be "unsupported" without alienating many customers. Support a few popular Windows games later and you gain another market as well.
Like I said, who knows if they actually plan this. It certainly is a possibility, though.
~chris
Actually, it looks like the alternate site has both H6 and H7 information here:
H6 and H7 information page
~c
Since the H7 page is already Slashdotted, perhaps some information on its direct ancestor, the H6 would shed some light.
Humanoid Robot H6 page
~chris
Rather than seek out organizations or individuals related to the project itself, it's sometimes beneficial to find an implementation company (a la RedHat's model). They usually base their business on providing a stable release of an open source product, with support and such as a fee-based product.
For instance, I would go to ActiveState if I was planning to roll out a large Perl installation. They have core Perl developers on staff, and they already have release cycles and customer service in place. I'm sure there are similar companies for any major open source project.
Even if they're providing no more than the software itself, they still provide a single point of contact for technical questions and software updates. That in itself is usually worth the fees they charge.
~chris
Seems like I used bad examples to show my point. I should have listed the exact search that I'm most interested in:
+"Perl for the Web"
Google reduces the search to "Perl Web" which brings up mostly false positives.
Agin, I use Google for most things, so I'm probably just not taking advantage of the advanced syntax in most cases.
~chris who apparently failed the Google test
I hope they get it back in shape. Altavista has a few tricks up its sleeve that Google hasn't matched yet, like the ability to do an exact-string search. I find that looking up names is sometimes easier with an AltaVista search:
+"Larry Wall" -"Perl"
AltaVista also allows meta searches, like "which pages link to mine?" Google just doesn't have that. I use it for everything else, though.
~chris"From our standpoint, we are designing the software for the 99 percent of the people who don't want to steal the music... not for the 1 percent who are going to take the lock cutters and cut the lock off and steal music in an unauthorized way."
If I'm hearing this right, he's basically saying, "Our product doesn't keep people from stealing the music, it just causes hassles for folks who buy music and want to listen to it on their computers."
Where's the reason in that? Who exactly is getting protected here?
~chris
I have heard that faxes count as dead trees in this case. The basic process seems to involve stacking all the 'agree' and 'disagree' pieces of paper and taking the taller stack to indicate voter intent.
There's an excellent game called Tikal from Rio Grande Games that is non-zero-sum while still competitive. The game is complex enough for adults and requires multiple layers of meta-strategy.
The object of the game is to get as many points as possible. This is done by uncovering sections of an archaeological dig (Tikal) and assigning people to discover as much as they can. Resources and time are both limited, but it's possible to gain points from other players' sites without taking the points away from them. This is made possible by a stepped scoring system that allows each player to maximize points before they're tallied.
To me, the strongest aspect of this game is the Othello-like possibility of turning a competitor's points to your advantage without necessarily "robbing" them. It makes it possible to win the game by a comfortable margin even after trailing behind for most of the game.
~chrisMost of the problem is that the (and I say this with the utmost respect) stupid tree-hugging, nuke-fearing, tofu-eating, fur coat-painting enviornmentalists won't let anyone build the safest and cleanest method of power generation... nuclear plants. They should realize that despite their good intentions, they are eventually making things worse...
In a word, bullshit. (Sorry, kids.)
Nuclear power plants are 'clean' only in terms of air pollution. If you look at total waste over time, there isn't a power source on the planet that's more wasteful, besides maybe harnessed animals. What usually isn't considered in that 'clean' assessment is the refinement of uranium, the disposal of radioactive coolant and other radioactive tools, and the interesting problem of disposing of nuclear waste, which even Tower would probably balk at storing in his backyard for a few hundred thousand years.
Nukes are good for two things: submarines and starships. That's about it.
I do agree with one aspect of the article Tower recommended; government intervention in the power industry is making a ridiculous situation even sillier and will likely force a few companies out of business. It's never a good thing to cap the price of a product that way.
As an aside, solar or wind power is cheaper than existing power plants in the same way personal computers are cheaper than mainframe computing. It may be more expensive to start, but when you put the power generation decisions in the hands of the power users, the market encourages things to get very cheap very quickly.
~chris the tree-hugging, nuke-fearing, tofu-eating, solar-using programmer/physicist