How does this proposal work with their status as a common carrier? If they can control content in this way, they should loose that status with respect to the service provided.
Of course - this does require sanity on the part of the regulator, which in my corner of the world seems sadly lacking.
Divers would not install because the installer app didn't know what OS you were running. I have had to deal with this too - just manually install the winXP drivers and hope it dosn't break anything.
With regard to the compatability of microsoft brand hardware, I rescently had a small problem with my game controllers. I have a USB racing wheel, and joystick that are MS branded. unfrotunatly, The do not work on windows XP or 2000. These being windows 98 only. It is stated on the MS hardware web site that the will be no drivers made for these products. Given that all were purchased within the last year. I no longer have any trust in harware compatability from microsoft. Once the producers of the best input divices.
In reading through the comets it appears many are of the belif that the actions philips are taking is a restriction on multi-region and non-region players.
From my experence in replacing a stolen DVD player, The liscenced manufacturers are producing players that don't follow the region restrictions. This might be the market that I am buying in - New Zealand, But I doubt that special versions would be produced for such a small market.
So what it leaves is companys that are producing products without liscencing the techonology they use from the patent owners. This is entirely consistant with philips' position on Non Red-Book CDDA disks - Unliscenced use of their IP and patents.
True there might be no easy way to tell that this is not a CD. But there is a problem where a consumer buys a CD to later discover that it is not infact a CDDA disk. The retailer, and then the suppliers run into problems of misrepresenting the products they are selling. An act that is illegal in many countrys.
Unfortunatly, the analagy is not entirely apropriate. I have personally been in exactly this position.
When I was working on electronic security systems, I spent a large portion of my time servicing bank alarm systems. We would test these system every 3 months to maintain their security, more often for remote ATM and other high risk sites. Part of the contract for servicing and testing these alarm systems included the REQUIREMENT that we fix immediatly and faults found.
With this system there is no need to mention any problems beyond the people immediatly involved.
It should also be mentioned that these security systems were implimented in such a way that not even the people who knew every detail of they setup could do anything - good or bad intent - with the system without others knowing.
For this to aply to microsoft, they need to have a proven track record of responding immediatly to problems and producing apropiate fixes.
While atempting to confirm the legality of region coding in NZ, I was faced with many "Brick Walls" - it is common practice withing New Zealand now to have "Chipping" services offered at the point of sale of region locked DVD players. And also there are many non region locked DVD players offfered for sale in New Zealand.
Following this example the ACCC could require consumers have access to similar services at the point of sale for DVD players.
I wanted to get Quake 3, on it's relese, but waited for the promised linux version. After it's announced release, I spent 2 months hasseling the local games shops to see if I could buy the linux verson.
No one ever imported the linux vrsion to my country so I had to buy a windows version. I wonders how much diference the numbers would have made had it been available here as a linux version too.
Having read this small problem, I then tried to remove flash from my browsers....
Netscape was easy.... disable aplicaton type, remove plugin...
IE5 became the problem. I have yet to find any way of uninstalling Flash from it!
Does anyone else remember a book by Harry Harrison, from about 30 years ago which was the story of building the Trans-Atlantic Rail tunnel?
"Trans-Atlantic Tunnel: 'Hurrah'" I think the title was.
It's much the same idea, and shows one aproach to the engineering issues.
I to am in a country that did not see a single copy of the linux version made available for sale.
While the numbers had been low, the linux version unavailable for purchase is going to squew that further.
This is not a problem with the shops themselves, but the importers that did not bother to give anyone the option of a linux version.
Kal
The processor linking that the refered to in the article will be NASA's normal triple redundant system. All 3 CPU's do the processing and if one of them is different that one is deemed faulty and dropped off line. This system is also used with in the shuttle, although they have a 4th CPU due to the value and vunerability of the shuttles cargo. How this triple redundancy works in actual practice is a question for some one else to answer.
Slashdot Mirror
How does this proposal work with their status as a common carrier?
If they can control content in this way, they should loose that status with respect to the service provided.
Of course - this does require sanity on the part of the regulator, which in my corner of the world seems sadly lacking.
Divers would not install because the installer app didn't know what OS you were running.
I have had to deal with this too - just manually install the winXP drivers and hope it dosn't break anything.
better solution - Ogg Vorbis : http://www.vorbis.com/
not to mention the 10 people that every one of those 3% tell :)
Number get big very quickly like that don't they
With regard to the compatability of microsoft brand hardware, I rescently had a small problem with my game controllers. I have a USB racing wheel, and joystick that are MS branded. unfrotunatly, The do not work on windows XP or 2000. These being windows 98 only. It is stated on the MS hardware web site that the will be no drivers made for these products. Given that all were purchased within the last year. I no longer have any trust in harware compatability from microsoft. Once the producers of the best input divices.
In reading through the comets it appears many are of the belif that the actions philips are taking is a restriction on multi-region and non-region players.
From my experence in replacing a stolen DVD player, The liscenced manufacturers are producing players that don't follow the region restrictions. This might be the market that I am buying in - New Zealand, But I doubt that special versions would be produced for such a small market.
So what it leaves is companys that are producing products without liscencing the techonology they use from the patent owners. This is entirely consistant with philips' position on Non Red-Book CDDA disks - Unliscenced use of their IP and patents.
Then again, this is only my opinion.
Kal
Perhaps the better question is: What percentage of slashdot is in a position to participate, and what percentage of those people did anything.
Kal
True there might be no easy way to tell that this is not a CD. But there is a problem where a consumer buys a CD to later discover that it is not infact a CDDA disk. The retailer, and then the suppliers run into problems of misrepresenting the products they are selling. An act that is illegal in many countrys.
Unfortunatly, the analagy is not entirely apropriate. I have personally been in exactly this position.
When I was working on electronic security systems, I spent a large portion of my time servicing bank alarm systems. We would test these system every 3 months to maintain their security, more often for remote ATM and other high risk sites. Part of the contract for servicing and testing these alarm systems included the REQUIREMENT that we fix immediatly and faults found.
With this system there is no need to mention any problems beyond the people immediatly involved.
It should also be mentioned that these security systems were implimented in such a way that not even the people who knew every detail of they setup could do anything - good or bad intent - with the system without others knowing.
For this to aply to microsoft, they need to have a proven track record of responding immediatly to problems and producing apropiate fixes.
Microsoft have the oppsite track record.
Kal
While atempting to confirm the legality of region coding in NZ, I was faced with many "Brick Walls" - it is common practice withing New Zealand now to have "Chipping" services offered at the point of sale of region locked DVD players. And also there are many non region locked DVD players offfered for sale in New Zealand. Following this example the ACCC could require consumers have access to similar services at the point of sale for DVD players.
I wanted to get Quake 3, on it's relese, but waited for the promised linux version. After it's announced release, I spent 2 months hasseling the local games shops to see if I could buy the linux verson.
No one ever imported the linux vrsion to my country so I had to buy a windows version. I wonders how much diference the numbers would have made had it been available here as a linux version too.
Well after a little searching I found where M$ hides shockwave for IE5.
/dev/null .....
c:\windows\system\macromedia
it's now been sent to
Having read this small problem, I then tried to remove flash from my browsers ....
Netscape was easy .... disable aplicaton type, remove plugin ...
IE5 became the problem. I have yet to find any way of uninstalling Flash from it!
Does anyone else remember a book by Harry Harrison, from about 30 years ago which was the story of building the Trans-Atlantic Rail tunnel?
"Trans-Atlantic Tunnel: 'Hurrah'" I think the title was.
It's much the same idea, and shows one aproach to the engineering issues.
I to am in a country that did not see a single copy of the linux version made available for sale. While the numbers had been low, the linux version unavailable for purchase is going to squew that further. This is not a problem with the shops themselves, but the importers that did not bother to give anyone the option of a linux version. Kal
The processor linking that the refered to in the article will be NASA's normal triple redundant system.
All 3 CPU's do the processing and if one of them is different that one is deemed faulty and dropped off line. This system is also used with in the shuttle, although they have a 4th CPU due to the value and vunerability of the shuttles cargo.
How this triple redundancy works in actual practice is a question for some one else to answer.