Part of the deal in.au for the free-to-air's getting the DTV spectrum for at no cost was so they could bring us the "splendour" of high definition tv.
The argument was "this is the evolution of TV, if you make us pay for the spectrum we can't afford to make any HDTV content". Of course noone really cares about HDTV but.gov.au swallowed this. At least they did make sure that broadcasts would be HDTV instead of just letting the bastards get the spectrum for nothing then broacast standard definition and use the rest of the bandwidth for data casting or extra channels to compete with pay tv.
The spectrum should have been auctioned off to whoever wanted it, i know that Fairfax and Ozemail plus a few other were very interested in buying some spectrum for data casting, but alas it was given away.
Now copyrighted works don't go into the
public domain for at least 70 years, and that's only if the author dies right after creating the work.
Question: What hapens when a work is not created by a person but a corporation? A movie is not made by an individual but a team of individuals (same as most software), AFIAK movies (and code) are owned by the company that funded them not the individual authors.
Since corporations don't die (even if they go bankrupt they sell their assets), how can anything createa recently go into the public domain?
Don't focus too much on live video and audio at first. What you need is a good discussion forum that not only keeps messages from the current class but from past classes as well, it is really helpfull to read past disscussions especially when doing a difficult assignment.
Have a section where people can (optionally) post thier email addresses ICQ, AIM etc. If you go the IRC/chat room route make sure you publish the logs (see above) and make them searchable.
Ineractive quizzes. Just do some cgi/php/whatever scripting to randomly select questions and mark them right or wrong when the form is submitted. This allows students to know if they are understanding the curriculum and I can't emphasise enough how important that is. Your students don't have any face time to see if they understand things, quizzes give those who understand it the confidence to move on and tells those that are struggling where to put in extra work. I can't emphasis enough how important that is, after disccussion boards it should be your next priority (ie. before shiny video streams).
As far as video/audio does go I'd put up some mp3's of lectures, nothing fancy just pure audio that will allow people to record them to cassette and listen to them on the way to work etc. I'd do some kind of flash presentation before going the video route, ask yourself what a video feed will get you that a slide show and audio won't, remember that many of your students will be on 56k or less.
Notes to the curriculum designers;
- Optional material. In my experience you will have some distance students who have large ammounts of prior knowledge, optional material will allow you to challenge these students without placing extra pressure on those that are struggling.
- Be very prompt when answering student questions. Solo study is very isolating and having to wait more than one working day for a response just unacceptable.
- Allocate enough tutors (see above). Make sure assesment marks are back promptly. (This is where my course falls down.) It is exceedingly frustrating to not have your first assignment back when your doing your third or fourth.
I have to say that I agree with pretty much everything MS has said here. This government in particular has done horible things to the country, come examples:
Education Huge funding cuts to higher education and a focus towards full fee paying students (there is currently a senate hearing into full fee paying students getting passed when they should be failed).
I'm studying CS part time, my employer pays for it, they also have to pay fringe benefits tax (FBT) on it! If I was doing a private course, even one that cost several thousand dollars a day there would be no FBT but because it university FBT is applied.
The public school system is in shamble, especially for boys. Every year boys perform worse and worse in the HSC (sorta like SAT's). Boys literacy rates are truly scary.
Broadband: Up untill recently I could not get any affordable broadband, where did I live about 15 mins drive from Sydney's CBD. I can only get it now because I moved, and it's capped at 512kbs. ADSL has been increadibly slow to roll out, the govt. has (finally) ordered Telstra to open their exchanges and allow competing providers in so ADSL rollout should start to speed up.
TV: (The industry I work in) HDTV spectrum was GIVEN to the free-to-air broadcasters, no charge and no competition in it till 2008.
I Hate to agree with MS, but this time they're right on the money.
Try using mpg123.
I had a similar problem on my sisters P75 and using mpg123 from an xterm did the trick. You can set it as the default player for napster etc.
What has gotten MS where they are today? The strength of their platform (API's Apps, dev tools etc).
.NET allows them to move that platform to any OS they want. They'll stand to make even more money off subscriptions AND the sale of the w2k server that drives it.
Sure the.NET on *nix will be buggier than on windows, but you can always upgrade;)
In Australia, (where i live) SMS is starting to make ground, and i for one am happy about it.
I use sms with a few friends, they are a pain to type but are certainly cheaper than regular calls:) and are perfect for sending phone numbers and email addresses without having to worry if the person at the other end has a pen.
Blue Sky Frog formerly smsmebaby.com has a service, (.au only) that allows you to send email from sms phones and recieve emails as sms messages as well!
Yeah i know, wap is better suited and doen't have a 250 char limit but wap is expensive in.au and you can only surf content that your teleco provides, no access to outside networks.
I have an Intellimouse and the cord is pretty dodgy (haven't had a chance to have it replaced).
When it goes down under windows the system completely hangs, the only thing to do is a power-cycle. Under linux on the other hand it's usually just CTL-ALT-F1 to text mode then back to X, the most i've ever had to do is restart X. Further contrast to windows the keyboard is has NEVER locked up under linux so i can always save my work.
Just one more reson why i hardly ever use that dos partition:)
I used mozilla as my main browser on linux for a few months, and still use it pretty regularly.
I found it much more stable that Netscape 4.7 and would recommend it, the initial page rendering is very fast.
I stopped useing it as a main browser because the GUI tends to get a bogged down after a while. I've also found that viewing cached pages is not as fast as it could be.
That said it is progressing extremely well and I'll be downloading M17 when it's released for real.
When you do try it out keep in mind that it's only just become feature complete, nothing has been optimised yet. If things are slow they won't be for too much longer!
Sony has been building a platform they hope will be the sole computing device for a lot of people. If they lose this case it will set a precident for Playstation 2 emulation.
With emulators freely avaliable some people who would have bought a Playstion will just go for a regular PC, a platform Sony has little influence over. Also, if emulators really do take off there is a chance Sony will lose control of the Playstation API the same way that IBM lost control of the PC BIOS.
This would be a very good thing for consumers but a very bad thing for Sony
It seems like Wyse has been jumping on the cool technology bandwagon everytime something new comes comes along. First Java then Linux now CE and a custom OS. The effort in moving bettween all those platforms must be more work than fixing the short commings existing one.
Dropping Linux is probably more due to bad management at Wyse than any real shortcommings in Linux. Are they expecting to pick a generic platform and have all their needs met WITHOUT doing any work themselves? Why did they drop Java in favor of Linux in the first place?
In 12 months they'll discover CE doesn't quite live up to the sales pitch and they'll jump into bed with someone else.
With all of the "carreer colleges" and "professional education centers" advertising the quick buck and easy employment...
Like you I've also returned to school to do CS, not for the money but to learn how these nutty computers actually work. When I was selecting a university I was amazed at how many degrees were totally focussed on in demand skills that help land jobs immediately after graduating, not on teaching the fundamentals that last an entire carreer.
These schools continually boasted about the employment rate of students after graduating, not what their graduates were doing five years after. This so called shotage is probably employers realising that not all degrees are equal, some are just there to fill a gap in the employment market.
Or maybe it's the bad attitudes of recent graduates, is it just me or do they all think they're hot shit these days?
...the EC Directive and related laws call for penalties only where the original manufacturer has made a "substantial investment" in the database.
Similar technology to what makes databases easier to copy also makes them easier to create. How will "substantial investment" be defined as the cost of data collection and storage come down?
Could the "substantial investment" definition be met by a database that was cheap to create but used a patented data collection method?
Back in the 80's, a similar merger between Polygram and Sony Music (could have been a different label, too long ago) was blocked here in Australia by the Competition Commision.
This merger could be stopped, or at least hampered if enough countries stand against it.
I work in a pay television station that made extensive y2k upgrades.
On the night management gave instructions that all operations were to be done manually. After all, they only spent about $700 000 on upgrades. They even told people to use the backup router which never underwent a full y2k test, the main router had been fully tested and was fine! I guess the word "backup" sounds a bit safer;^)
Midnight rocked round, most people (especially the juniors) followed managements directives & worked manually. Without automation there were "just a few" screw ups! It was hilarious watching the spooling and black go to air from people who had never worked without automation.
What I saw all year was lots of bozos, repeating lots of buz words. Of course, lots and lots of fruitful work was created, to prepare for Y2k.
Slashdot Mirror
Where's a mod point when you need one?
The argument was "this is the evolution of TV, if you make us pay for the spectrum we can't afford to make any HDTV content". Of course noone really cares about HDTV but .gov.au swallowed this. At least they did make sure that broadcasts would be HDTV instead of just letting the bastards get the spectrum for nothing then broacast standard definition and use the rest of the bandwidth for data casting or extra channels to compete with pay tv.
The spectrum should have been auctioned off to whoever wanted it, i know that Fairfax and Ozemail plus a few other were very interested in buying some spectrum for data casting, but alas it was given away.
Politics of setting up the Federation could be cool, just think "Section 31".
Question: What hapens when a work is not created by a person but a corporation? A movie is not made by an individual but a team of individuals (same as most software), AFIAK movies (and code) are owned by the company that funded them not the individual authors.
Since corporations don't die (even if they go bankrupt they sell their assets), how can anything createa recently go into the public domain?
Don't focus too much on live video and audio at first. What you need is a good discussion forum that not only keeps messages from the current class but from past classes as well, it is really helpfull to read past disscussions especially when doing a difficult assignment.
Have a section where people can (optionally) post thier email addresses ICQ, AIM etc. If you go the IRC/chat room route make sure you publish the logs (see above) and make them searchable.
Ineractive quizzes. Just do some cgi/php/whatever scripting to randomly select questions and mark them right or wrong when the form is submitted. This allows students to know if they are understanding the curriculum and I can't emphasise enough how important that is. Your students don't have any face time to see if they understand things, quizzes give those who understand it the confidence to move on and tells those that are struggling where to put in extra work. I can't emphasis enough how important that is, after disccussion boards it should be your next priority (ie. before shiny video streams).
As far as video/audio does go I'd put up some mp3's of lectures, nothing fancy just pure audio that will allow people to record them to cassette and listen to them on the way to work etc. I'd do some kind of flash presentation before going the video route, ask yourself what a video feed will get you that a slide show and audio won't, remember that many of your students will be on 56k or less.
Notes to the curriculum designers;
- Optional material. In my experience you will have some distance students who have large ammounts of prior knowledge, optional material will allow you to challenge these students without placing extra pressure on those that are struggling.
- Be very prompt when answering student questions. Solo study is very isolating and having to wait more than one working day for a response just unacceptable.
- Allocate enough tutors (see above). Make sure assesment marks are back promptly. (This is where my course falls down.) It is exceedingly frustrating to not have your first assignment back when your doing your third or fourth.
Best of luck
Your right that FBT was the last Labor government, but that doesn't mean applying it to education is right.
Education Huge funding cuts to higher education and a focus towards full fee paying students (there is currently a senate hearing into full fee paying students getting passed when they should be failed).
I'm studying CS part time, my employer pays for it, they also have to pay fringe benefits tax (FBT) on it! If I was doing a private course, even one that cost several thousand dollars a day there would be no FBT but because it university FBT is applied.
The public school system is in shamble, especially for boys. Every year boys perform worse and worse in the HSC (sorta like SAT's). Boys literacy rates are truly scary.
Broadband: Up untill recently I could not get any affordable broadband, where did I live about 15 mins drive from Sydney's CBD. I can only get it now because I moved, and it's capped at 512kbs. ADSL has been increadibly slow to roll out, the govt. has (finally) ordered Telstra to open their exchanges and allow competing providers in so ADSL rollout should start to speed up.
TV: (The industry I work in) HDTV spectrum was GIVEN to the free-to-air broadcasters, no charge and no competition in it till 2008.
I Hate to agree with MS, but this time they're right on the money.
Try using mpg123.
I had a similar problem on my sisters P75 and using mpg123 from an xterm did the trick. You can set it as the default player for napster etc.
Such as popup windows that have all their text embedded in jpeg images, no plain text at all!
What has gotten MS where they are today? The strength of their platform (API's Apps, dev tools etc).
I use sms with a few friends, they are a pain to type but are certainly cheaper than regular calls :) and are perfect for sending phone numbers and email addresses without having to worry if the person at the other end has a pen.
Blue Sky Frog formerly smsmebaby.com has a service, (.au only) that allows you to send email from sms phones and recieve emails as sms messages as well!
Yeah i know, wap is better suited and doen't have a 250 char limit but wap is expensive in .au and you can only surf content that your teleco provides, no access to outside networks.
When it goes down under windows the system completely hangs, the only thing to do is a power-cycle. Under linux on the other hand it's usually just CTL-ALT-F1 to text mode then back to X, the most i've ever had to do is restart X. Further contrast to windows the keyboard is has NEVER locked up under linux so i can always save my work.
Just one more reson why i hardly ever use that dos partition :)
I'm yet to come accross a page that has any usefull information in flash and not in regular HTML (which is as it should be).
I found it much more stable that Netscape 4.7 and would recommend it, the initial page rendering is very fast.
I stopped useing it as a main browser because the GUI tends to get a bogged down after a while. I've also found that viewing cached pages is not as fast as it could be.
That said it is progressing extremely well and I'll be downloading M17 when it's released for real.
When you do try it out keep in mind that it's only just become feature complete, nothing has been optimised yet. If things are slow they won't be for too much longer!
Sony has been building a platform they hope will be the sole computing device for a lot of people. If they lose this case it will set a precident for Playstation 2 emulation.
With emulators freely avaliable some people who would have bought a Playstion will just go for a regular PC, a platform Sony has little influence over. Also, if emulators really do take off there is a chance Sony will lose control of the Playstation API the same way that IBM lost control of the PC BIOS.
This would be a very good thing for consumers but a very bad thing for Sony
thx
Dropping Linux is probably more due to bad management at Wyse than any real shortcommings in Linux. Are they expecting to pick a generic platform and have all their needs met WITHOUT doing any work themselves? Why did they drop Java in favor of Linux in the first place?
In 12 months they'll discover CE doesn't quite live up to the sales pitch and they'll jump into bed with someone else.
Thanks for that post. May it bring you much karma!
Like you I've also returned to school to do CS, not for the money but to learn how these nutty computers actually work. When I was selecting a university I was amazed at how many degrees were totally focussed on in demand skills that help land jobs immediately after graduating, not on teaching the fundamentals that last an entire carreer.
These schools continually boasted about the employment rate of students after graduating, not what their graduates were doing five years after. This so called shotage is probably employers realising that not all degrees are equal, some are just there to fill a gap in the employment market.
Or maybe it's the bad attitudes of recent graduates, is it just me or do they all think they're hot shit these days?
Similar technology to what makes databases easier to copy also makes them easier to create. How will "substantial investment" be defined as the cost of data collection and storage come down?
Could the "substantial investment" definition be met by a database that was cheap to create but used a patented data collection method?
This merger could be stopped, or at least hampered if enough countries stand against it.
Sure this can be inconvenient at times but, not as inconvenient as getting your 7th or 8th domain choice
It only means more domains for the squatters. Not to mention an extra cost to everyone who wants to keep squatters off thier lawn.
I work in a pay television station that made extensive y2k upgrades.
On the night management gave instructions that all operations were to be done manually. After all, they only spent about $700 000 on upgrades. ;^)
They even told people to use the backup router which never underwent a full y2k test, the main router had been fully tested and was fine! I guess the word "backup" sounds a bit safer
Midnight rocked round, most people (especially the juniors) followed managements directives & worked manually. Without automation there were "just a few" screw ups! It was hilarious watching the spooling and black go to air from people who had never worked without automation.
What I saw all year was lots of bozos, repeating lots of buz words. Of course, lots and lots of fruitful work was created, to prepare for Y2k.
The automation worked perfectly but management insisted that everything was done manually, even though all the tests came out ok.
We're drinking chamapagne now and getting pissed :)