I suppose that a National Biometric ID is better than Microsoft's proposal that Social Security Numbers be replaced by consumers' WindowsXP product activation serials.
I wouldn't worry too much about the insurance companies using this data. One insurance company, Progressive, did a test in Texas do determine whether such data could be used to set insurance rates. Despite what the linked article says, even though they did find the information predictive, they couldn't find enough people willing to get the black boxes installed to move forward with the product.
But I digress....
As part of the test, Progressive also patented the algorithms to turn such black box data into insurance rates. Prog isn't the type of company that would license that tech (I am a pricing actuary at a competitor.
A little gossip from some folks I talked to a Progressive, BTW: Although the GPS data was predictive enough to let them consider doing away with other seemingly intrusive underwriting analysis, the thing that was really predictive was the whether a person was willing to let a black box be installed in their vehicles. All other things being equal, people who were willing to be monitored had fewer accidents than people who weren't.
So, if DNA sequences are going to be encoded as music files, for copyright protection, and if the RIAA is the protector of music copyrights, then doesn't this mean that we'll all have to start paying RIAA royalties if we have unprotected sex?
Why do I have the sudden image of the Republicrats posting kiddy porn to Demican newsgroups and web fora, and Demicans returning the favor, as part of a nasty little game to stifle political speech during an election season?
Now, the question of the day is this: Which will happen first:
The RIAA and MPAA will use the DMCA to render broadcast media unrecordable; or
The quality of shows broadcast continues to decline to the point of being unwatchable to begin with
Seriously, unless or until television is rejuvenated with "The CowboyNeal Show", I think that concerns about the RIAA and MPAA hijacking HDTV are little more than alphabet-soup hysteria.
The U.S. has zero chance to uphold the DMCA unless they get precident behind it that come from using it to prosecute someone who they can present as having evil purposes... such as any of the alleged DoD crackers arrested this week.
This brings to mind an interesting possibility: has anyone asked Dmitry to be available to act as a defense witness for when the the DMCA is first tested against the "evil purpose" folks?
I've never met Dmitry, but if he does come off as a polished scholar, a good person, a mom-and-prianik medoviy type guy, perhaps he would be good at helping to build a defense against the DMCA regardless of the skeeziness of the victims of the test case.
Michael asked: But how many people routinely encrypt their email?
As much as I hate Lotus Notes, I do have to give it credit in one regard: Notes can be configured to encrypt mail by default. Within the large corporation I work for, every piece of intracompany email is encrypted.
On more than one occasion when traveling to a major city, I've had to find a phone book to verify how to dial local calls to a different local area code. Do I dial NNN-NNNN, or NNN-NNN-NNNN, or 1-NNN-NNNN?
I'm glad that the FCC didn't make 10-digit dialing mandatory countrywide, but it would be nice if the FCC mandated that NNN-NNN-NNNN be a valid dialing option for all non-toll calls.
Kevlar -- I hate to tell you this, but most of those 30 y/o management majors in Hartford CT are making significantly less money than the average geek reading Slashdot.
I'm not a 30 y/o management major. I'm just one of the inferior American actuaries in Hartford, considering switching professions for a lighter workload and more money.
(*sigh* -- it figures that boycott information would come up while I'm writing my post....)
Re. music should be about the art, not about money." Well, to those people I say that it's nice of you to make the decision for the artist....
That's an appropriate statement. However, it's just as appropriate to point out that "the money has to a great extent been making the decision for the people."
I'm sorry, but Napster, Gnutella, and the like have made it possible for me to find out about artists and CDs I would have been very unlikely to discover through more conventional means. Hell, every CD I've bought in the past couple of years came as a result of music I discovered online.
It's music I would not have heard about otherwise, because the music industry has not seen fit to promote it, either online, or through traditional media.
Yes, there is a rebellious appeal to napster -- the idea that we don't necessarily have to pay $10 into the coffers of the music industry for every $0.15-to-manufacture disc we purchase.
But the mp3 phenomenon is about more than just rebellion or entitlement. It's also about the transformation of communication among music fans. It's also about the mainstreaming of the net challenging old business models.
I'm sorry to see this happen to Napster. The RIAA really needs to get its head out of its rear-end, and figure out a way to take advantage of Napster-ish technology. Running around with your fingers in your ears shouting "Neener-neener! You don't exist!" isn't going to make reality go away.
Perhaps I've just missed something, what with being locked away in my tiny cubicle for too long....but I'm surprised that someone hasn't yet made noise about starting a boycott of RIAA members' products.
Then again, maybe that's not such a good idea. After all, the diversity of music available via gnutella would surely suffer if people quit buying CDs.:)
There are also other high-mileage vehicles out there. I'm waiting for the Toyota Prius to be released here in the U.S. before I decide on the new car I'm about to buy.
Yes, it's still primarily petrol-powered, but I live in an area where malls don't have electric vehicle recharge stations, and where the nearest public-accessible CNG refuel station is 40 miles away. If the car runs decently, I'll probably buy it on principle.
When you move the discussion to alternate forms of energy in general, I've been doing a bit of reading (Energyland,Home Power Magazine, and Solar Design Associates) because of my wife's and my plans to build a house sometime in the not to distant future.
It seems that solar is technologically more viable than I expected. Even up here in un-sunny New England, there are some people living comfortable lives either off the electric grid, or connected to the grid only as a backup/secondary power source.
I don't see solar becoming mass-market in the current economic environment, mind you. In the U.S., the cost per kWh for electricity from the national grid is still far cheaper than going solar.
However, if a few more people answered to their consciences in addition to their bank accounts, perhaps we would see a few more of the recent crop of McMansions sprouting solar panels.
There are only two reasons I have a cable line running into my home: cable modem service, and the digital music channels.
Yes, I could use napster/gnutella, compile my own playlists...but why? That takes more time and more research than I really care to put into my music listening. The digital music provider has a much larger library, and is more in touch with new music in each genre than I can ever realistically hope to be.
There are times when I do use Winamp to listen to a set of tracks I've ripped from my CD collection. But there are other times when I just want a little random backround music to fit my mood. Right now, I have the blues channel on as background music. Maybe tomorrow I'll be in more of a mood for Acid Jazz. Or Raggae. Whatever. It's almost all here -- enough to satisfy my eclectic tastes, anyway.
I'll probably sign up for the new sattelite service when it starts up. It's a pain ripping music for a roadtrip off the digital cable audio, and burning it on to a CD for the car.:)
After all the hours I've spent cleaning up after Microsoft's messes (and I'm a cubicle drone; not even an IT person!), I would have to say that requiring some sort of warranty isn't such a bad thing, at least on payferware.
So, is there a happy medium?
Sure. Require a warranty. But limit liability to some function of the price paid for the software/license.
Suppose that UCITA required that software writers be on the hook for up to three times the cost of their program.
Free software authors would be in the clear. Three times zero is zero, after all.
Shareware authors? What, the going rate for a good shareware program is $10 or $20? So, if they're on the hook for not more than $60, it's unlikely that anyone would go after them, if their programs misbehaved.
But payferware creators.... Well, let's put it this way: How much are Microsoft site licenses going for these days?
Although I don't know what they do with the information per se, in a hardwired Nielsen household Nielsen does collect data about VCR operations -- whether it's recording or playing, and if it's recording, what channel it is recording off of.
My only two gripes about Nielsen -- they use a disturbingly small sample size (about 1 in 20,000 households in my market), and they thought my A/V system was too complex to hardwire.:-/
I'm also an @Home subscriber. @Home news servers, mail servers, web servers, internal content, all suck royally. Therefore I get my news and mail, and host my website elsewhere. I subscribe to @Home for one reason only -- an IP address on a generally high-speed line. In that regard, when @Home is good, it's *very* good. (And when it sucks, may the gods help you trying to get a clueful tech to look at the problem.) If you can get a discounted install, the cost is more or less equivalent to an account on a decent ISP, and a second phone line. I would love to go with a different service provider, but in my area (Hartford, CT), the options are limited. DSL is not available to the general public here yet, and @Home has an exclusive contract on the local cable wires. Hopefully the UDP will be the clue-by-four that finally knocks some sense into @Home admins. There are some good ones in the organization, but they're hidden away behind the bulk of the staff, which spends far too much energy sticking their fingers in their ears and babbling "lalalalalaIcan'thearyoulalalalala".
Slashdot Mirror
Isn't CDN200 million = USD 5 these days?
I thought we already agreed that Windows was well-proven.
I suppose that a National Biometric ID is better than Microsoft's proposal that Social Security Numbers be replaced by consumers' WindowsXP product activation serials.
But I digress....
As part of the test, Progressive also patented the algorithms to turn such black box data into insurance rates. Prog isn't the type of company that would license that tech (I am a pricing actuary at a competitor.
A little gossip from some folks I talked to a Progressive, BTW: Although the GPS data was predictive enough to let them consider doing away with other seemingly intrusive underwriting analysis, the thing that was really predictive was the whether a person was willing to let a black box be installed in their vehicles. All other things being equal, people who were willing to be monitored had fewer accidents than people who weren't.
So, if DNA sequences are going to be encoded as music files, for copyright protection, and if the RIAA is the protector of music copyrights, then doesn't this mean that we'll all have to start paying RIAA royalties if we have unprotected sex?
Why do I have the sudden image of the Republicrats posting kiddy porn to Demican newsgroups and web fora, and Demicans returning the favor, as part of a nasty little game to stifle political speech during an election season?
I don't think it's too unreasonable that a combination GPS, PDA, and phone could be made available at $100/pop within the next 6 years.
Seriously, unless or until television is rejuvenated with "The CowboyNeal Show", I think that concerns about the RIAA and MPAA hijacking HDTV are little more than alphabet-soup hysteria.
There was a period in 1995 and 1996 where I used a different address each time I posted to USENET.
As a result, I get as many as 40 copies of some spams, depending on what database the spammer is using.
Thanks to having used so many valences of my email address over the past decade, I'm now averaging 300-325 pieces of spam being sent my way each day.
Thank Ghu for procmail!
This brings to mind an interesting possibility: has anyone asked Dmitry to be available to act as a defense witness for when the the DMCA is first tested against the "evil purpose" folks?
I've never met Dmitry, but if he does come off as a polished scholar, a good person, a mom-and-prianik medoviy type guy, perhaps he would be good at helping to build a defense against the DMCA regardless of the skeeziness of the victims of the test case.
As much as I hate Lotus Notes, I do have to give it credit in one regard: Notes can be configured to encrypt mail by default. Within the large corporation I work for, every piece of intracompany email is encrypted.
On more than one occasion when traveling to a major city, I've had to find a phone book to verify how to dial local calls to a different local area code. Do I dial NNN-NNNN, or NNN-NNN-NNNN, or 1-NNN-NNNN?
I'm glad that the FCC didn't make 10-digit dialing mandatory countrywide, but it would be nice if the FCC mandated that NNN-NNN-NNNN be a valid dialing option for all non-toll calls.
I'm not a 30 y/o management major. I'm just one of the inferior American actuaries in Hartford, considering switching professions for a lighter workload and more money.
According to this article from CNN about a month ago, the Greenland icecap has become thinner.
Re. music should be about the art, not about money." Well, to those people I say that it's nice of you to make the decision for the artist....
That's an appropriate statement. However, it's just as appropriate to point out that "the money has to a great extent been making the decision for the people."
I'm sorry, but Napster, Gnutella, and the like have made it possible for me to find out about artists and CDs I would have been very unlikely to discover through more conventional means. Hell, every CD I've bought in the past couple of years came as a result of music I discovered online.
It's music I would not have heard about otherwise, because the music industry has not seen fit to promote it, either online, or through traditional media.
Yes, there is a rebellious appeal to napster -- the idea that we don't necessarily have to pay $10 into the coffers of the music industry for every $0.15-to-manufacture disc we purchase.
But the mp3 phenomenon is about more than just rebellion or entitlement. It's also about the transformation of communication among music fans. It's also about the mainstreaming of the net challenging old business models.
I'm sorry to see this happen to Napster. The RIAA really needs to get its head out of its rear-end, and figure out a way to take advantage of Napster-ish technology. Running around with your fingers in your ears shouting "Neener-neener! You don't exist!" isn't going to make reality go away.
Then again, maybe that's not such a good idea. After all, the diversity of music available via gnutella would surely suffer if people quit buying CDs. :)
Yes, it's still primarily petrol-powered, but I live in an area where malls don't have electric vehicle recharge stations, and where the nearest public-accessible CNG refuel station is 40 miles away. If the car runs decently, I'll probably buy it on principle.
When you move the discussion to alternate forms of energy in general, I've been doing a bit of reading (Energyland, Home Power Magazine, and Solar Design Associates) because of my wife's and my plans to build a house sometime in the not to distant future.
It seems that solar is technologically more viable than I expected. Even up here in un-sunny New England, there are some people living comfortable lives either off the electric grid, or connected to the grid only as a backup/secondary power source.
I don't see solar becoming mass-market in the current economic environment, mind you. In the U.S., the cost per kWh for electricity from the national grid is still far cheaper than going solar.
However, if a few more people answered to their consciences in addition to their bank accounts, perhaps we would see a few more of the recent crop of McMansions sprouting solar panels.
Yes, I could use napster/gnutella, compile my own playlists...but why? That takes more time and more research than I really care to put into my music listening. The digital music provider has a much larger library, and is more in touch with new music in each genre than I can ever realistically hope to be.
There are times when I do use Winamp to listen to a set of tracks I've ripped from my CD collection. But there are other times when I just want a little random backround music to fit my mood. Right now, I have the blues channel on as background music. Maybe tomorrow I'll be in more of a mood for Acid Jazz. Or Raggae. Whatever. It's almost all here -- enough to satisfy my eclectic tastes, anyway.
I'll probably sign up for the new sattelite service when it starts up. It's a pain ripping music for a roadtrip off the digital cable audio, and burning it on to a CD for the car. :)
So, is there a happy medium?
Sure. Require a warranty. But limit liability to some function of the price paid for the software/license.
Suppose that UCITA required that software writers be on the hook for up to three times the cost of their program.
Free software authors would be in the clear. Three times zero is zero, after all.
Shareware authors? What, the going rate for a good shareware program is $10 or $20? So, if they're on the hook for not more than $60, it's unlikely that anyone would go after them, if their programs misbehaved.
But payferware creators.... Well, let's put it this way: How much are Microsoft site licenses going for these days?
You must be level 21 to enter Baghdad, but newbies are welcome to help overthrow Central American dictators.
Oh, and watch out for the pkillers.....
My only two gripes about Nielsen -- they use a disturbingly small sample size (about 1 in 20,000 households in my market), and they thought my A/V system was too complex to hardwire. :-/
I'm also an @Home subscriber. @Home news servers, mail servers, web servers, internal content, all suck royally. Therefore I get my news and mail, and host my website elsewhere. I subscribe to @Home for one reason only -- an IP address on a generally high-speed line. In that regard, when @Home is good, it's *very* good. (And when it sucks, may the gods help you trying to get a clueful tech to look at the problem.) If you can get a discounted install, the cost is more or less equivalent to an account on a decent ISP, and a second phone line. I would love to go with a different service provider, but in my area (Hartford, CT), the options are limited. DSL is not available to the general public here yet, and @Home has an exclusive contract on the local cable wires. Hopefully the UDP will be the clue-by-four that finally knocks some sense into @Home admins. There are some good ones in the organization, but they're hidden away behind the bulk of the staff, which spends far too much energy sticking their fingers in their ears and babbling "lalalalalaIcan'thearyoulalalalala".