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  1. Re:No - Move Forward Instead on Is It Time To Commit To Ongoing Payphone Availability? · · Score: 1

    Wireless backhaul is no problem; a fair number of ham radio repeaters are equipped with autopatch, which allows any radio operator to make phone calls via the landline at the repeater by entering the DTMF codes for the phone number desired. Alternately, my county has a mobile backup communication center that can handle dispatch, 911, and such and has satellite Internet and phone access. Hook either up to a picocell and you've got cell coverage. The waiting in line code is a potential problem, but it could be handled by accepting a text requesting access to a specific phone number, and having the system call you (and the number you wanted with your caller ID data) when your turn comes up.

  2. Re:Good ol' HAM radio? on Ask Slashdot: Ad-Hoc Wireless Mesh Network For Emergency Vehicles? · · Score: 1

    If you need the higher speed, HSMM-Mesh is designed for basically this purpose. We're doing webcam streaming and all kinds of fun things, all via amateur radio and Linksys WRT54gs units. Someone in your area might be working on a mesh already, which means you could take advantage of it in addition to your own gear.

  3. Re:What's With All The RIM Hate? on RIM May Need To Write Off $1 Billion In Inventory · · Score: 1

    Eh, they'll find a way.

  4. Re:Bank in America on Industry Groups Bid To Control New Business-Specific TLDs · · Score: 1

    But that would make sense, so obviously we can't do that.

  5. Re:Better Question on Book Review: Drupal Intranets With Open Atrium · · Score: 1

    1.21 gigadollars?

  6. Re:Beat Graphene to Market? on Silicene Discovered: Single-layer Silicon That Could Beat Graphene To Market · · Score: 1

    Well, if it's similar to graphene in ease of making and useful properties, then yes, it could beat graphene to market in actual consumer-type devices because it's easier to integrate into current manufacturing based around silicon. Yes, the headline is optimistic and smells a bit of propaganda, but anything similar to current stuff is more likely to get adopted quickly.

  7. Re:Tech Acadamy of FINLAND!!! on Linus Shares the Millennium Technology Prize · · Score: 1

    Steve Holt!

  8. Re:Audio watermark for music on Pirate Bay Promotion Attracts Over 5000 Artists · · Score: 1

    I'd look into adding a modulated carrier wave in either the sub- or supersonics and bury it a bit in the mix. If you use anything over 22kHz it probably won't survive any form of data compression unless it's really loud, but you also avoid nearly everyone's ears (except animals, the very occasional engineer, and perhaps babies). You might also consider using a specific element as an info medium, perhaps using a tambourine or a glock or toms to carry Morse code (or of course the high carrier could be used to transmit Morse, but that's much too simple and unlikely to be tampered with - DRM needs to be cumbersome and easily bypassed ;p).

  9. Re:Losses, but due to piracy? on The Numbers Behind the Copyright Math · · Score: 1

    Sure, piracy hurts the labels a bit. But you know what really takes the revenue away? Artists can now afford to set up a recording studio in their own homes, or rent them for practically nothing, and make albums by themselves. Studio engineers have been fired in droves over the last few years, no new ones are being hired, and the ones mixing the albums were almost always independent contractors anyway. The engineers no longer have a reason to support the labels, so music production is evolving away from the labels. It's pretty common now to have an artist record something in their bedroom or garage and bring it to an engineer to mix, edit, master, or some combination of those, then take it to a CD duplication company and walk out with an album to sell. It's trivial to send in a copy to the Library of Congress for copyright purposes, and as long as you have five to thirty thousand dollars to invest none of this is particularly difficult. The second album is even cheaper.

  10. Re:Musicians demand loudness on Mastering Engineer Explains Types of Compression, Effects On Today's Music · · Score: 2

    That normally happens to me, too. It doesn't help that the human ear will always prefer the louder (acoustically in the room, i.e. moving more air around, not necessarily the more compressed or closer to 0dBFS) version. But because compression sounds louder (and more even in volume), everyone likes it more (and/or mistakes consistency in volume with consistency in pitch, rhythm, or anything else). Unless they're the sort who hate hearing themselves, most will demand more compression. One album I'll be mixing next month has even set a goal to have every song the exact same volume. I've had the pleasure of working with a couple of artists who actually appreciate dynamics, though, and they're my favorite clients.

  11. Re:As California is home to... on California To Join Nevada With Rules For Autonomous Cars · · Score: 1

    Try Kazakhstan. What India does with bikes, they do with cars and busses. It's a very interesting experience watching your bus jockey for position with five others and dozens of cars on narrow roads. Very interesting, indeed.

  12. Yes, but: on Man Convicted For Helping Thousands Steal Internet Access · · Score: 1

    My house is not being sold, rented, licensed, or otherwise traded for value to members of the public. I make no contract with nor representation to others that they may use my property for any purpose or feel secure while so doing. I suspect that this was not the case with the ISP. While a large fine might not be in order (you'll note Sony got a slap on the wrist for their breaches last year, confirmed to have released millions of credit card numbers), something to discourage poor practices by commercial vendors isn't a bad idea. Think of it as a higher insurance premium for people known to be prone to break-ins who keep failing to lock their doors (or, if you prefer, a lack of a discount for a good alarm system and high-quality locks). Just because the person breaking in is unquestionably in the wrong doesn't make the corporation being broken into unquestionably in the right.

  13. Re:Prior Art on YouTube Identifies Birdsong As Copyrighted Music · · Score: 1

    Mod parent up!

  14. Re:The picture is the least important part on Television Next In Line For Industry-Wide Shakeup? · · Score: 1

    Yay! Someone else is preaching the sound gospel! As a film sound engineer, I often have to convince newer filmmakers that all their set dressing is worthless if it sounds bad (but that a good sound design can make any set feel alive). Another fun demonstration is to subtract frames from the video, more from each second at intervals of about ten seconds, and see when they notice. It's usually around four or five taken out - and these are filmmakers, people who should notice more than anyone else. But if I put just one sample of either zero or full scale audio into a dialogue track, they notice. It's impressive that our ears can detect 1/96,000th (or, at most, 1/44,100th) of a second of bad audio, and it never ceases to amaze me that our eyes do not detect even 3/24ths of a second being replaced with black or gray or white.

  15. Re:They aren't wrong on Do You Like Online Privacy? You May Be a Terrorist · · Score: 1

    So in this case, if the counter-terrorists win, the terrorists win?

  16. Re:even if it works... on X-rays For Stargazing Turn Into Cancer Treatment · · Score: 1

    Most current cancer treatments already cost as much or more than the equivalent weights of precious metals. My mom's IV stuff alone was over $24,000 per bag, and there were a lot of bags. And anything that keeps the incredibly toxic substances away from your body is a plus. The chemo stuff is seriously harsh on people.

  17. Re:guys who girls won't fsk on When Software Offends · · Score: 1

    +1. I think the girls figure they can get away with it since the guys police themselves mostly for the girls' benefit anyway. Maybe they're trying to impress the guys with their obscene vocabulary? But whatever the reason, I've almost always found this to be true.

  18. Re:MPAA quaking in their boots? on Indie Film Premieres On BitTorrent Before Cinema · · Score: 1

    After taking an animation class in film school, I will never consider animated features "cheap." There's a lot of work involved, and trained animators' time isn't free, either. If you're doing it all yourself in your spare time, then it's just the cost of the computer and the program you use. But that's not exactly the same thing as a full production.

  19. No, but machines die on Is Final Cut Pro X Apple's Biggest Mistake In Years? · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I wondered about that, too. But after a bit of thought I realized that the pros need to complain now, and loudly enough to get changes made. This is Apple's product going forward, and if we want any part of it we need to tell them before we're shut out. I certainly won't be switching to FCP X any time soon, and I doubt any even semi-pro editor will be. But if we want something that will work on our next computers, or even to properly leverage our current ones, or if we want software updates to keep our codecs and export formats up-to-date, or any of the useful traits of current-release software, we need to be sure that we can use FCP X. Right now, we can't. That's OK; real professionals are used to waiting on software updates and rarely get to use 1.0 software because it has bugs and incompatibilities and all sorts of problems that are fine for consumers but not fine for clients. We use it on test machines if we have the luxury and tell manufacturers where it isn't working and then we usually get to deploy 1.01 or 1.03 to the trenches. This explosion is exactly what we should expect, given that no one can buy FCS3 any more. If Apple was more open and had let pro users beta test it, we'd be a lot less vocal - no one gets that mad about Avid's bugs because they have a relatively open process for dealing with them. No one got excited over FCS3 bugs, either. It's more Apple's style of reveal, "Hey, this is all you can buy now! It's professional, since it says it in the name! Isn't it awesome?" that gets the high-end users worked up.

  20. Re:Gasp on Why Is Adobe Flash On Linux Still Broken? · · Score: 1

    Actually, Flash does *not* work fine on OS X. I use Leopard 10.5.4 and FF3, and Flash crashes the browser regularly. When it doesn't manage to crash FF, Flash slows my computer down so much I'd swear it was a Windows box. Safari is somewhat better, but still bogs down tremendously with any and all Flash sites. However, it's true that if Adobe can fix Flash on the Mac, it shouldn't be hard to fix it up for Linux. Both are Unix-based, and there are a lot of similarities.

  21. Re:Organized crime on Evidence of Russian Cyberwarfare Against Georgia · · Score: 1

    That is the question, isn't it? Whether or not the hackers got special advance notice of the attack, and whether or not their government "encouraged" them to hack another country's infrastructure. Given that the attack on the servers happened before the physical attack - and before anyone would have good occasion to look up Georgian sites in particular, not to mention hack them - it doesn't look especially good for Russia's plausible deniability.

  22. Re:More info required... on Olympic Media Village – Most Expensive Internet In the World? · · Score: 1

    From the post: "...for 2M/512 it costs a whopping 11,700 RMB (1716.05 USD). That is for only one month!"

  23. Capitalist China? on Olympic Media Village – Most Expensive Internet In the World? · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Perhaps China has decided to become capitalist after all. Since the reporters need the Internet, why not charge them (and thereby their evil capitalist pig networks) ridiculous amounts of money for it? Perhaps they hope to recoup the cost of the Olympic Village?