Gates: Well, ignore DRM for a second. Should an artist that creates a great song be paid for that song? That's where you have to start. You don't start with DRM. DRM is just like a speed bump that reminds you whether you're staying within the scope of rights that you have or you don't. So you don't start with DRM. That's like saying, 'Do you believe in speed bumps?' You have to say, 'Should people drive at 80mph in parking lots?' If you think they should, then of course you don't like speed bumps.
He'd be a lot easier to believe if he hadn't stolen the code for MSDOS to begin with. Who was fairly compensated for programming that work? Then there's the whole giving away IE for market share. He's communistic when it suits his capitalistic interests.
He talks about DRM as just a tool and tries to paint the interviewer as an extremist by asking if he doesn't think DRM on medical records is evil. DRM, just like a gun, can be used for good or for evil purposes. The question should not be whether a particular purpose is good or evil, but whether the genie of DRM should be let out of its bottle. It is way too late to ask that question in relation to guns. There are plenty of people who would like to put the nuclear genie back in the bottle. But yes, DRM can absolutely be used in evil ways. To counter his medical records example, what if that DRM prevented a patient from seeing his or her own medical records? What if DRM prevented me from citing Bill's words for the purpose of comment in this article?
When you create a tool, you should ask not what good it CAN do, but what evil it WILL be used to do, because it is the nature of man that he will find uses for your tool you didn't even imagine.
Someone used their finger to draw "wash me" in the dirt. The area contained in the letters is now free of dirt, thus increasing light to the panels.
Hmmm... when I first saw that cartoon, I thought it looked like the rover had been turned into one of the replicators from Stargate SG-1. Maybe that was unintentional on Illiad's part.
Personally I don't even like the space and castle legos I buy my son the basic blocks only. With a space set he can build space ships. With a castle set he can build castles. With generic blocks he can build spaceships, castles, cars, and a whole bunch of things I would never have thought of.
Bah! If you have a castle set AND a space set, you can build space castles! Seriously, I used to combine parts from my space sets and my Lego airport to make some really cool stuff. The only issue I have with current Hollywood tie-ins is that it is an excuse to charge more by creating an artificial 'collectible' that isn't really very collectible. Also that the pieces are ONLY available in the sets and not separately or in bulk is kind of a pain.
Geez, 6.3.1 is so old, I've already had to upgrade my Pix twice due to software errors that would cause the box to reset itself under moderate load. Current version is 6.3.4, and there have been a load of fixes. Maybe someone will want to buy it so they can write their own fixes & see if they work better than Cisco's updated version.
Didn't anybody notice that spelled backwards, prosco is Oscorp, the evil multinational conglomerate that developed the Green Goblin flying wing and battle suit from Spiderman???
Oops, guess I got a little dyslexic. It's actually just an anagram.
I heard a news item the other day on the radio that banks all around the country are about to begin using a new system for verification of checks and that customers could no longer count on 'floating' of check for two or three days. I'd be willing to bet PayPal was upgrading their software to support this. It's estimated this change will put $2 billion more into the banking industry each year, largely in the form of fees on bounced checks and overdraft charges. There may be more such failures in the next few weeks.
Any legislator that votes for a law that is later overturned as unconstitutional should be FIRED (or worse).
This is a shortsighted and simplistic view. On the one hand, a law that is *obviously* unconstitutional could be considered deserving of such treatment. But it is the purview of the courts to decide whether a law is in conflict with the Constitution. The legislature can't be expected to bat 1000 when passing laws, and if they realistically could, the judiciary would become irrelevant. Further, often it is not an entire law, but instead just a single clause that is struck by the courts. Would this justify firing? Or just a public flogging?
Read it. It will happen (or something like it). It IS happening. Futurama was NOT at all wrong when it depicted advertisers beaming their crap into people's brains while they dreamed. Every successful marketing/sales droid I know would have zero second thoughts about anything which can increase revenue. Among those people, there are no morals. I mean, Pepsi has already tried to pollute the night sky. Pizza Hut is slapping their logo on the side of spaceships. This has been going on for years. There's nowhere they won't try to go.
Nope. The ringworld rotates, in order to create the illusion of gravity on the inside of the ring. Anything on the outside of the ring goes shooting away at a rather high velocity. The shadow squares likewise rotate in order to simulate the day/night cycle. They can't just sit in place, or the days/nights would be too short. They can't orbit for the same reason, normal speed of orbit would be so slow as to result in a very short diurnal cycle. Since the whole structure is spinning, there is an outward force, and the wires keep everything from flying into the ringworld itself. Also, as I recall, the shadow squares were used as power collectors. The wires were superconducting and used to transmit that power. Can't recall if Niven ever mentioned a collection station somewhere.
This just got me to thinking about some of the other interesting thought experiments out there like the infinite monkeys protocol, or IP over bongo drums...
The useful thing about pigeons is that they're really reliable for getting data between two places, albeit slow. (On the subject of firewalling, a recent study I read determined that pigeons follow roads as a convenient navigation tool... blow up a road, and see packet loss???)
Some other methods (read: transport media) come to mind, but the difficulty is in finding one that can cover as great distances as pigeons reliably or within a reasonably timely fashion. Or more importantly, ensuring that the data is transmitted between two points of your choosing (arrival at other locations would represent 'lost' packets).
As I mentioned, bongo drums have already been proposed, and I believe smoke signals, light flashes with mirrors.
Some other ideas that come to mind might not work as well.
1) A one-way protocol could involve damming a river & transmitting information by releasing water, or more simply using colored dye to send a signal downstream... Perhaps it could be augmented for upstream bandwidth using Salmon (during spawning season) Pros: very reliable downstream Cons: not as reliable upstream, low bandwidth. Improvements: data could be floated in some sort of vessel to improve bandwidth.
2) Release of a large number of weather balloons could transport data, but would literally rely on the wind for delivery at the proper location. Pros: redundancy increases with increase in weather balloons, bandwidth could be relatively high. Cons: no guarantee of reception of packets (but isn't that whay IP is all about?) High latency.
3) This one is my favorite: using seismometers and some device capable of creating a detectable disturbance, data could be transmitted through the entire planet reliably, with relatively low latency, at a low bandwidth. Pros: reliability, low latency. Cons: building demolitions are detectable, but what would be the smallest detectable vibration that wouldn't be lost in background noise? Use of explosives could work, but unfortunately, those are tough to replace, dangerous, etc.
After that, my ideas get admittedly... weird.
4) The butterfly protocol: butterfly flaps its wings in Tokyo, it rains in New York. Not very reliable. Too subject to interference.
5) Similar to the seismograph idea, using a gravitometer and a large enough mobile mass, such as a train engine, data could be represented by the location of that mass. Orient it one way, you have a zero, rotate it the other way, the center of gravity shifts, and you have a one. What range could this work at? How much mass would you need? How much energy required to move it? Pros: could work without fear of interference by RF, solar flares, etc at very large distances. Propagation of signal at light speed. Cons: energy required to move the mass, low bandwidth.
6) Encode the data into the DNA of a microscopic organism, release into the wild, wait for it to propagate and eventually be picked up at the destination. Pros: DNA allows for extremely reliable transmission of data. The packet will likely get there uncorrupted. You can fit a lot of data into a strand of DNA. Cons: possible environmental hazards, packet loss due to environmental factors that kill the organism, high latency. (Perhaps this is already being done... why else do we have a new strain of flu coming from China each & every year?)
Asprin will help you beat it. That's how I did it. Just take a couple a day around when you normally drink soda. If you get a headache take an extra one. Slowly taper off the Aprin and you'll be over soda within a week or so...
Actually, you should be careful. Many pain-relief products include caffeine. If you do this, make sure it's just plain ole aspirin.
I quit just last week, haven't had any caffeine in six days. But I started a month ago by quitting Diet Cokes cold turkey. Switched to iced tea & regular cokes to kill my nutra-sweet intake (2 liters of diet coke a day just CAN'T be good for you). Guess that reduced my caffeine intake enough that I didn't really feel any difficulty quitting. (beware chocolate, too).
The funniest thing was after about 4 days I had a bad dream one night about opening and slurping down a giant can of coke & spoiling my caffeine-fast.
The employee may have been trying to up his call volume, but I doubt it. Workers in those call centers are bound by the scripts prepared for them. Of course, this may have also been a worker in an Indian call center, and Dell is already taking flack for their low-quality work. On the US side, however, I can tell you that Dell has phones in their buildings where any employee can walk up and listen in on a live support call going on at that moment. I could be worth that CSR's job to blow off a customer like that just to get a higher call volume.
For the first time in five years, I am actually unencumbered by any draconian contract that ties me to a particular carrier, as of yesterday, in fact.
I called ATTWS to determine the exact end-date, and what my options are for getting a better deal, since my 500 bonus anytime minutes expired along with the contract. The customer service rep (CSR) was in a big ole tizzy to get me to sign up, and I think I see why... Here's a comparison of the current and available rate plans:
So I asked her about the night/weekend thing. I've had a phone with them for 5 years & the night/day hours have always been 8pm-8am. The
new plan is 9pm-5:59am for night hours. The bastards! Not only that, I discovered that they made this switch sometime around June of last year without telling me. When I switched to their GSM service, they changed the hours with NO notice to me.
So, I asked her what she could tell me about the upcoming number portability deadline. She said they plan to have portability available in November, and I told her thanks, but it doesn't make sense to me then to sign my life over to them for another year given that I'll soon be able to leave for a better deal & take my number with me.
So, I can't express how freeing it feels to have no worries about $175 contract termination fees, but how frustrating it was to go see every other provider offering the same crappy plans. I can't WAIT to see the deals they offer when this one barrier to competition is finally removed.
Now, if the govt would only do something about the mandatory contract terms, outrageous cancellation fees, and phone provider locking. Maybe THEN we'd see some real competition.
Fuck doing that... I'm left-handed, but mouse right-handed. No way in hell I can write a siggy with my right-hand mousing. And I have a hard-enough time doing it with a pen in my left hand. Right-handers: try pushing a pen from right to left across a page sometime while making a legible or artistic mark. My WRITTEN signature isn't the same every time I do it.
I think if they want to truly be able to verify your identity, they'll have to eventually do some kind of real-time video verification where you speak with an operator from an authorized third party who asks you a series of random questions to verify your identity. Then, they'd have an audio-video record of the transaction, and be able to verify it wasn't from a recording/macro/etc.
Two years ago, I bought a Rio 600 new for ~$180. The device was crippled, can only write, can't read files, must use their application to transfer files, no external power source, LOW battery life (batteries drain even when powered off). Not only that, but the promised 320MB memory add-on never saw the light of day.
Now, they not only have stopped selling, but also supporting the things. The application doesn't work under Windows 2K, you must use RealOne (which I despise), and which doesn't allow (who knows why?) you to transfer WMA files to the device. It's firmware-upgradeable, and otherwise a spiffy device, so NO REASON they couldn't provide updates, or at least source code so some project could take it over, provide support for Ogg, etc.
It will be a cool day in heck before I consider the purchase of any more Rio products. I'd like to be comfortable that products I purchase (especially for a premium price) will be usable more than six months down the road.
Following the distribution of our letter to the Fortune 1000 and Global 500, many prominent companies using Linux contacted SCO to ask, 'What do you want me to do?'," added McBride. "Today, we're delivering a very clear message to customers regarding what they should do. Intellectual property is valuable and needs to be respected and paid for by corporations who use it for their own commercial benefit. The new UnixWare license accomplishes that objective in a fair and balanced way."
This says it all, really. The heart of the argument is that intellectual property is valuable and must be paid for. That's a very Microsoftian point of view, if you ask me. That statement leaves NO room for the idea of intellectual property as freely used for the benefit of all.
Let the fuckers sue me. I've signed no agreements with SCO. As far as I recall, you can't be held liable for purchasing stolen goods if you were acting in good faith, believing they were legitimate. You may have to give 'em back. OK, SCO, tell me what I need to give back.
the synergy between virus writers and anti-virus companies?
Seriously, WHY do you suppose MS hasn't made their product more secure from viruses? Probably getting kickbacks from McAfee.
I've always thought there just had to be some connection. After all, consider the sheer numbers of new viruses, and the fact that 99.999% of 'hackers' (and by that I mean people bent on causing online trouble) are script-kiddies, that doesn't leave a lot of people out there talented enough to write the code. Also, it seems the quickest way to detect and repair a virus is to have written the code in the first place and already know how it works.
One wonders if the major antivirus companies have some sort of information-exchange to share projected rollout dates "Yeah, we're planning a biggie to increase our sales next quarter, here's a floppy with the signature and payload. We'll trade ya for the fix on your latest NIMDA variant."
Hey, can an antivirus company really say they're doing EVERYTHING to protect their customers unless they're sharing info? Hmmmm.
If it reacts with a gas in the air, it's probably oxygen. No vacuum necessary... Just open it in a chamber full of N2. Completely non-reactive and very cheap.
Then cover it with a layer of clear acrylic spray. There may be some vertical deviance, but most players are made to correct for up to somewhere between.3mm and.5mm vertical dev. Translation: as long as you get an even coat, it should play nicely (unless the acrylic is permeable to O2 or has a chemical that itself reacts with the disc).
Films recoup costs in both the theater and on video. They also recoup through deals for cable and "big 4" network broadcast, as well as for exhibition on airlines and such. For blockbusters there's also marketing tie-in deals. None of these things really apply for music albums... yet.
So, what about CDs that are SOUNDTRACKS of films? certainly this was part of the production cost of the movie, but you can often get a VHS or DVD cheaper than the CD of the soundtrack.
Another thing nobody's mentioning is that Movies don't make money off the tax on digital tape. (And now on CDs in some countries).
I HIGHLY recommend everyone check out 'Jennifer Government' and the related simulation website 'NationStates' An exerpt follows:
"Welcome to paradise! The world is run by American corporations (except for a few deluded holdouts like the French); taxes are illegal; employees take the last names of the companies they work for; the Police and the NRA are publicly-traded security firms; and the U.S. government only investigates crimes it can bill for.
Hack Nike is a Merchandising Officer who discovers an all-new way to sell sneakers. Buy Mitsui is a stockbroker with a death-wish. Billy NRA is finding out that life in a private army isn't all snappy uniforms and code names. And Jennifer Government, a legendary agent with a barcode tattoo, is the consumer watchdog from hell."
They have announced they've resurrected Hitler to write the civil rights laws in the 'New' Iraq.
Kenneth Lay will be spearheading the committee on democratic corporatism.
Ronald Reagan will come out of retirement to direct the operations of the new Iraqi dept of mental health.
Bush has assigned his brother, Jeb (who will be taking a paid leave of absence from his duties as Governor of Florida) to ensure the Iraqi people have free and full access to fair democratic elections.
Larry Flynt is coming out of seclusion to assist with writing laws regulating morality in print media.
Michael Jackson is relocating his 'Neverland' ranch to the outskirts of Baghdad so he can be on-hand to advise in the creation of child decency legislation.
OJ Simpson, who recently discounted rumors that he would be starring in a new reality series, was asked to provide input on the formation of a forensic unit in the new Republican Republican Guard.
Jeffrey Dahmer's memoirs were found to contain startling revelations that will help solve the problem of food shortages in no time.
Finally, further tests have shown that 55-gallon barrels once thought to contain chemical weapons actually only held 'special sauce' for former President Bill Clinton's big macs. When questioned about the news, one coalition soldier in charge of the search said "Nope, nossir, we haven't found any WMDs yet. But, we do think we might have located Jimmy Hoffa."
Slashdot Mirror
He'd be a lot easier to believe if he hadn't stolen the code for MSDOS to begin with. Who was fairly compensated for programming that work? Then there's the whole giving away IE for market share. He's communistic when it suits his capitalistic interests.
He talks about DRM as just a tool and tries to paint the interviewer as an extremist by asking if he doesn't think DRM on medical records is evil. DRM, just like a gun, can be used for good or for evil purposes. The question should not be whether a particular purpose is good or evil, but whether the genie of DRM should be let out of its bottle. It is way too late to ask that question in relation to guns. There are plenty of people who would like to put the nuclear genie back in the bottle. But yes, DRM can absolutely be used in evil ways. To counter his medical records example, what if that DRM prevented a patient from seeing his or her own medical records? What if DRM prevented me from citing Bill's words for the purpose of comment in this article?
When you create a tool, you should ask not what good it CAN do, but what evil it WILL be used to do, because it is the nature of man that he will find uses for your tool you didn't even imagine.
Hmmm... when I first saw that cartoon, I thought it looked like the rover had been turned into one of the replicators from Stargate SG-1. Maybe that was unintentional on Illiad's part.
Bah! If you have a castle set AND a space set, you can build space castles! Seriously, I used to combine parts from my space sets and my Lego airport to make some really cool stuff. The only issue I have with current Hollywood tie-ins is that it is an excuse to charge more by creating an artificial 'collectible' that isn't really very collectible. Also that the pieces are ONLY available in the sets and not separately or in bulk is kind of a pain.
Geez, 6.3.1 is so old, I've already had to upgrade my Pix twice due to software errors that would cause the box to reset itself under moderate load. Current version is 6.3.4, and there have been a load of fixes. Maybe someone will want to buy it so they can write their own fixes & see if they work better than Cisco's updated version.
Who's going to play Barney the dinosaur? If this movie doesn't have a Barney patch, it's just not worth watching.
Didn't anybody notice that spelled backwards, prosco is Oscorp, the evil multinational conglomerate that developed the Green Goblin flying wing and battle suit from Spiderman???
Oops, guess I got a little dyslexic. It's actually just an anagram.
I heard a news item the other day on the radio that banks all around the country are about to begin using a new system for verification of checks and that customers could no longer count on 'floating' of check for two or three days. I'd be willing to bet PayPal was upgrading their software to support this. It's estimated this change will put $2 billion more into the banking industry each year, largely in the form of fees on bounced checks and overdraft charges. There may be more such failures in the next few weeks.
But the popups still work... Hmmm....
This is a shortsighted and simplistic view. On the one hand, a law that is *obviously* unconstitutional could be considered deserving of such treatment. But it is the purview of the courts to decide whether a law is in conflict with the Constitution. The legislature can't be expected to bat 1000 when passing laws, and if they realistically could, the judiciary would become irrelevant. Further, often it is not an entire law, but instead just a single clause that is struck by the courts. Would this justify firing? Or just a public flogging?
Jennifer Government.
Read it. It will happen (or something like it). It IS happening. Futurama was NOT at all wrong when it depicted advertisers beaming their crap into people's brains while they dreamed. Every successful marketing/sales droid I know would have zero second thoughts about anything which can increase revenue. Among those people, there are no morals. I mean, Pepsi has already tried to pollute the night sky. Pizza Hut is slapping their logo on the side of spaceships. This has been going on for years. There's nowhere they won't try to go.
Nope. The ringworld rotates, in order to create the illusion of gravity on the inside of the ring. Anything on the outside of the ring goes shooting away at a rather high velocity. The shadow squares likewise rotate in order to simulate the day/night cycle. They can't just sit in place, or the days/nights would be too short. They can't orbit for the same reason, normal speed of orbit would be so slow as to result in a very short diurnal cycle. Since the whole structure is spinning, there is an outward force, and the wires keep everything from flying into the ringworld itself. Also, as I recall, the shadow squares were used as power collectors. The wires were superconducting and used to transmit that power. Can't recall if Niven ever mentioned a collection station somewhere.
This just got me to thinking about some of the other interesting thought experiments out there like the infinite monkeys protocol, or IP over bongo drums...
The useful thing about pigeons is that they're really reliable for getting data between two places, albeit slow. (On the subject of firewalling, a recent study I read determined that pigeons follow roads as a convenient navigation tool... blow up a road, and see packet loss???)
Some other methods (read: transport media) come to mind, but the difficulty is in finding one that can cover as great distances as pigeons reliably or within a reasonably timely fashion. Or more importantly, ensuring that the data is transmitted between two points of your choosing (arrival at other locations would represent 'lost' packets).
As I mentioned, bongo drums have already been proposed, and I believe smoke signals, light flashes with mirrors.
Some other ideas that come to mind might not work as well.
1) A one-way protocol could involve damming a river & transmitting information by releasing water, or more simply using colored dye to send a signal downstream... Perhaps it could be augmented for upstream bandwidth using Salmon (during spawning season) Pros: very reliable downstream Cons: not as reliable upstream, low bandwidth. Improvements: data could be floated in some sort of vessel to improve bandwidth.
2) Release of a large number of weather balloons could transport data, but would literally rely on the wind for delivery at the proper location.
Pros: redundancy increases with increase in weather balloons, bandwidth could be relatively high. Cons: no guarantee of reception of packets (but isn't that whay IP is all about?) High latency.
3) This one is my favorite: using seismometers and some device capable of creating a detectable disturbance, data could be transmitted through the entire planet reliably, with relatively low latency, at a low bandwidth. Pros: reliability, low latency. Cons: building demolitions are detectable, but what would be the smallest detectable vibration that wouldn't be lost in background noise? Use of explosives could work, but unfortunately, those are tough to replace, dangerous, etc.
After that, my ideas get admittedly... weird.
4) The butterfly protocol: butterfly flaps its wings in Tokyo, it rains in New York. Not very reliable. Too subject to interference.
5) Similar to the seismograph idea, using a gravitometer and a large enough mobile mass, such as a train engine, data could be represented by the location of that mass. Orient it one way, you have a zero, rotate it the other way, the center of gravity shifts, and you have a one. What range could this work at? How much mass would you need? How much energy required to move it? Pros: could work without fear of interference by RF, solar flares, etc at very large distances. Propagation of signal at light speed. Cons: energy required to move the mass, low bandwidth.
6) Encode the data into the DNA of a microscopic organism, release into the wild, wait for it to propagate and eventually be picked up at the destination. Pros: DNA allows for extremely reliable transmission of data. The packet will likely get there uncorrupted. You can fit a lot of data into a strand of DNA. Cons: possible environmental hazards, packet loss due to environmental factors that kill the organism, high latency. (Perhaps this is already being done... why else do we have a new strain of flu coming from China each & every year?)
Actually, you should be careful. Many pain-relief products include caffeine. If you do this, make sure it's just plain ole aspirin.
I quit just last week, haven't had any caffeine in six days. But I started a month ago by quitting Diet Cokes cold turkey. Switched to iced tea & regular cokes to kill my nutra-sweet intake (2 liters of diet coke a day just CAN'T be good for you). Guess that reduced my caffeine intake enough that I didn't really feel any difficulty quitting. (beware chocolate, too).
The funniest thing was after about 4 days I had a bad dream one night about opening and slurping down a giant can of coke & spoiling my caffeine-fast.
The employee may have been trying to up his call volume, but I doubt it. Workers in those call centers are bound by the scripts prepared for them. Of course, this may have also been a worker in an Indian call center, and Dell is already taking flack for their low-quality work. On the US side, however, I can tell you that Dell has phones in their buildings where any employee can walk up and listen in on a live support call going on at that moment. I could be worth that CSR's job to blow off a customer like that just to get a higher call volume.
I called ATTWS to determine the exact end-date, and what my options are for getting a better deal, since my 500 bonus anytime minutes expired along with the contract. The customer service rep (CSR) was in a big ole tizzy to get me to sign up, and I think I see why... Here's a comparison of the current and available rate plans:
Current.__.__.__.__.__.__.__.__.__.__Available
$40.__.__.__.__.__.__.__.__.__.__.__.$40
500 anytime minutes.__.__.__.__.__.__300 anytime
$10 for additional 1000 night/weknd__unlmtd n/w
additional minutes $0.25.__.__.__.__.$0.40
roaming $0.25.__.__.__.__.__.__.__.__$0.69
So I asked her about the night/weekend thing. I've had a phone with them for 5 years & the night/day hours have always been 8pm-8am. The new plan is 9pm-5:59am for night hours. The bastards! Not only that, I discovered that they made this switch sometime around June of last year without telling me. When I switched to their GSM service, they changed the hours with NO notice to me.
So, I asked her what she could tell me about the upcoming number portability deadline. She said they plan to have portability available in November, and I told her thanks, but it doesn't make sense to me then to sign my life over to them for another year given that I'll soon be able to leave for a better deal & take my number with me.
So, I can't express how freeing it feels to have no worries about $175 contract termination fees, but how frustrating it was to go see every other provider offering the same crappy plans. I can't WAIT to see the deals they offer when this one barrier to competition is finally removed.
Now, if the govt would only do something about the mandatory contract terms, outrageous cancellation fees, and phone provider locking. Maybe THEN we'd see some real competition.
Follow the link to the contract, choose 'functional specification' and then jump down to 'Nameserver functional specifications' which I quote:
ICANN Please, Please, Please, Please, Please, PLEASE!!!! take that letter and offer to shove it up Verisign's ass gift-wrapped in their contract.
OR
<big giant cluebat>
You *THWAP* DON'T! *THWAP* BREAK *THWAP* THE R *THWAP* F *THWAP* C! *THWAP*
</big giant cluebat>
Fuck doing that... I'm left-handed, but mouse right-handed. No way in hell I can write a siggy with my right-hand mousing. And I have a hard-enough time doing it with a pen in my left hand. Right-handers: try pushing a pen from right to left across a page sometime while making a legible or artistic mark. My WRITTEN signature isn't the same every time I do it.
I think if they want to truly be able to verify your identity, they'll have to eventually do some kind of real-time video verification where you speak with an operator from an authorized third party who asks you a series of random questions to verify your identity. Then, they'd have an audio-video record of the transaction, and be able to verify it wasn't from a recording/macro/etc.
Two years ago, I bought a Rio 600 new for ~$180.
The device was crippled, can only write, can't read files, must use their application to transfer files, no external power source, LOW battery life (batteries drain even when powered off). Not only that, but the promised 320MB memory add-on never saw the light of day.
Now, they not only have stopped selling, but also supporting the things. The application doesn't work under Windows 2K, you must use RealOne (which I despise), and which doesn't allow (who knows why?) you to transfer WMA files to the device. It's firmware-upgradeable, and otherwise a spiffy device, so NO REASON they couldn't provide updates, or at least source code so some project could take it over, provide support for Ogg, etc.
It will be a cool day in heck before I consider the purchase of any more Rio products. I'd like to be comfortable that products I purchase (especially for a premium price) will be usable more than six months down the road.
This says it all, really. The heart of the argument is that intellectual property is valuable and must be paid for. That's a very Microsoftian point of view, if you ask me. That statement leaves NO room for the idea of intellectual property as freely used for the benefit of all.
Let the fuckers sue me. I've signed no agreements with SCO. As far as I recall, you can't be held liable for purchasing stolen goods if you were acting in good faith, believing they were legitimate. You may have to give 'em back. OK, SCO, tell me what I need to give back.
the synergy between virus writers and anti-virus companies?
Seriously, WHY do you suppose MS hasn't made their product more secure from viruses? Probably getting kickbacks from McAfee.
I've always thought there just had to be some connection. After all, consider the sheer numbers of new viruses, and the fact that 99.999% of 'hackers' (and by that I mean people bent on causing online trouble) are script-kiddies, that doesn't leave a lot of people out there talented enough to write the code. Also, it seems the quickest way to detect and repair a virus is to have written the code in the first place and already know how it works.
One wonders if the major antivirus companies have some sort of information-exchange to share projected rollout dates "Yeah, we're planning a biggie to increase our sales next quarter, here's a floppy with the signature and payload. We'll trade ya for the fix on your latest NIMDA variant."
Hey, can an antivirus company really say they're doing EVERYTHING to protect their customers unless they're sharing info? Hmmmm.
If it reacts with a gas in the air, it's probably oxygen. No vacuum necessary... Just open it in a chamber full of N2. Completely non-reactive and very cheap.
.3mm and .5mm vertical dev. Translation: as long as you get an even coat, it should play nicely (unless the acrylic is permeable to O2 or has a chemical that itself reacts with the disc).
Then cover it with a layer of clear acrylic spray. There may be some vertical deviance, but most players are made to correct for up to somewhere between
Segmentation fault: Core Dumped
Films recoup costs in both the theater and on video. They also recoup through deals for cable and "big 4" network broadcast, as well as for exhibition on airlines and such. For blockbusters there's also marketing tie-in deals. None of these things really apply for music albums... yet.
So, what about CDs that are SOUNDTRACKS of films? certainly this was part of the production cost of the movie, but you can often get a VHS or DVD cheaper than the CD of the soundtrack.
Another thing nobody's mentioning is that Movies don't make money off the tax on digital tape. (And now on CDs in some countries).
I HIGHLY recommend everyone check out 'Jennifer Government' and the related simulation website 'NationStates'
An exerpt follows:
"Welcome to paradise! The world is run by American corporations (except for a few deluded holdouts like the French); taxes are illegal; employees take the last names of the companies they work for; the Police and the NRA are publicly-traded security firms; and the U.S. government only investigates crimes it can bill for.
Hack Nike is a Merchandising Officer who discovers an all-new way to sell sneakers. Buy Mitsui is a stockbroker with a death-wish. Billy NRA is finding out that life in a private army isn't all snappy uniforms and code names. And Jennifer Government, a legendary agent with a barcode tattoo, is the consumer watchdog from hell."
Jennifer Government
They have announced they've resurrected Hitler to write the civil rights laws in the 'New' Iraq.
Kenneth Lay will be spearheading the committee on democratic corporatism.
Ronald Reagan will come out of retirement to direct the operations of the new Iraqi dept of mental health.
Bush has assigned his brother, Jeb (who will be taking a paid leave of absence from his duties as Governor of Florida) to ensure the Iraqi people have free and full access to fair democratic elections.
Larry Flynt is coming out of seclusion to assist with writing laws regulating morality in print media.
Michael Jackson is relocating his 'Neverland' ranch to the outskirts of Baghdad so he can be on-hand to advise in the creation of child decency legislation.
OJ Simpson, who recently discounted rumors that he would be starring in a new reality series, was asked to provide input on the formation of a forensic unit in the new Republican Republican Guard.
Jeffrey Dahmer's memoirs were found to contain startling revelations that will help solve the problem of food shortages in no time.
Finally, further tests have shown that 55-gallon barrels once thought to contain chemical weapons actually only held 'special sauce' for former President Bill Clinton's big macs. When questioned about the news, one coalition soldier in charge of the search said "Nope, nossir, we haven't found any WMDs yet. But, we do think we might have located Jimmy Hoffa."